Your Custom Text Here
Growing up in the Village of Ringoes, NJ, Christopher Hiltey knew from an early age that he would be an artist. Born to a family of welders and metal workers, Hiltey was fascinated by the light and sparks from the welder and began tinkering with the process.
His first exposure to art was at Harry’s Ironworks, Harry Balmer was a local sculptor who also designed jewelry, sculptural furniture, and wall reliefs. Inspired by Harry's use of found objects and armed with a welder he used on his family’s farm, Hiltey embarked on his own journey with art and metal sculpture.
By high school he was already an accomplished welder working in his garage with found objects to create 3-dimensional geometric and figurative sculptures in the whimsical spirit of Dadaism. Inspired by the work of sculptors David Smith, Anthony Caro and Alexander Calder, Hiltey has always placed great importance on color and symmetry. His keen interest in line, shape, color and texture is obvious, as are his wry and witty titles.
Tools are a favorite object for Hiltey’s imagination, and drawing from his vast collection of metal goods, he transforms ordinary farm implements, machine parts, architectural antique objects and household items into marvelous sculptures whose presence evokes tribalistic totems and fetishishtic icons. His sculptures evoke sharp contrasts between his chosen materials and his subject matter. Most of his works are not meant to be static, but are constantly changing or altered over time with the seasons.
His early restoration work on wrought iron fences and gates attracted customers and commissions for ornamental ironwork. For more than 30 years, Hiltey has made his living with his welding torch, working with architects, builders, designers and decorators. His firm, Bolt Welding and Ironworks, is a full service shop with 7 full time employees based in a 10,000 sq ft studio Trenton, NJ, and is renown for its fine quality and excellent craftsmanship.
Hiltey’s sculptures are found in many public and private collections throughout the United States and abroad, including the Cafesjian Museum of Art in Yerevan, Armenia.
Sculptor, painter, teacher, curator and student of anthropology, philosophy and religion, Sydney K. Hamburger earned a Bachelor's and Master's degree, with emphasis in sculpture, from Towson State University, Baltimore. She also studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore; Oxford University, England, and the Baltimore Museum of Art as well as Hood College, Frederick, Maryland. Her work is included in the collections of the Washington County Museum of Fine Art, Hagerstown, MD, The Macdowell Colony, Peterborough, NH; The Talbot Bank, Easton, MD; Grace Hartigan, New York/Baltimore; Pepita Seth, Delhi/London, and Amalie R. Rothschild, New York, NY and Rome, ITALY among others. Hamburger was awarded an honorary Ph.D. from Hood College, Frederick, MD in 1993.