Donna Zarbin-Byrne

Click here to see some of Donna's work

Donna Zarbin-Byrne currently operates Great Lakes Art Studio, a metal casting and fabricating studio in Skokie, Illinois, which she co-founded with her husband Richard.

She holds an MFA and a BFA from the University of Texas-San Antonio and has also studied at Parsons School of Design (New York City) and Alfred State School of Ceramics (New York.). She has been the recipient of an Individual Artists Fellowship and a Grant from the Illinois Arts Council.

Her art has been exhibited extensively in galleries and museums on the East Coast and Midwest including the Zolar Gallery of Pennsylvania State University, Franklin Furnace (New York City), David Adler Cultural Center (Libertyville, IL), and Blue Star Art Space, San Antonio, Texas.

Zarbin-Byrne has also received public and private commissions and created public sculptures for the city of Evanston, Illinois; Deerfield, Illinois; and the Liquid Packaging Corporation in Wisconsin. Since 1980, she has worked with children in schools and community centers creating public works.

About Zarbin-Byrne's Art...

Zarbin-Byrne's projects have ranged from site-specific interior and exterior installations to small, individual sculptural objects and works on paper.

She is especially skilled at the integration of site with subject. "When I attempt to transform a site," explains the artist, "I let it speak to me and then proceed from there." This "gardener of the dreamscape" selects her materials based upon aesthetic criteria. Her constructions have often contained a vast array of materials; for example, cast bronze roots and stems, ceramic segments, and found objects.

Critic Ann-Sargent Wooster has described Zarbin-Byrne's work as "...organic forms...partially derived from the biomorphic abstractions of Juan Miro and Arshile Gorky, but Zarbin-Byrne gives their draftsmanship a new twist. By rendering these forms sculpturally, she gives these products of the subconscious a dynamic realism."

Her constructions also reflect a variety of sources: Historical, Biblical, Botanical-just to name a few. The result is simultaneously poetic and thought-provoking. Zarbin-Byrne loves to bring together her love of mixed media and her fascination with imagery-and meld them all into a magical creation.

Versatility is Donna Zarbin-Byrne's hallmark. Whether working as a teacher, sculpture, installation artist or muralist, she brings her unique, creative gifts and vast professional experience.