MID-SIZED SCULPTURES
WALL RELIEFS...​
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Untitled Cast Iron Relief
1974
This Untitled Cast Iron Relief sculpture with multiple half faces radiating from the central face mask was the last student iron casting done by Wyrick in the UI Sculpture Studio after she had produced Post Sculpture (cast with the help of Iowa Steel & Iron, Cedar Rapids). Mold-making and metal finishing was done by Wyrick along with help on the iron pour. This reinforced her decision to work with commercial foundries.
This wall piece was originally free-standing, provided with steel supports. It was displayed for some time in the office of the artist’s husband, Darrell Wyrick, President of the UI Foundation.
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In 2003 a close friend, LaDonna Wicklund, was raising funds to renovate the Englert Theatre lobby. She asked Myron “Mike” Blank, owner of the Central States Theater Corporation who was selling the theatre to the Englert to fund the lobby renovation. Mike graciously provided the funding for the second floor Art Gallery, but he stipulated that the gallery be in honor of Shirley Wyrick.
Wyrick then lent the Englert her Untitled Cast Iron Relief and had it converted to a wall relief to hang in the new Art Gallery. In 2021 after its long-term loan in that location, the relief’s ownership was transferred to the Englert by the artist and was moved to the Englert’s 3rd floor executive offices.
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Untitled - multiple faces on wall 1974 last cast iron relief student sculpture
Untitled Cast Bronze
1974
Untitled Cast Bronze – Wyrick volunteered to be the subject for a trial of a dental casting material in her Sculpture class. The experience of having her entire face covered, with straws to breathe through was concerning, but just after it was completed she made a plaster mold of the mask. Replicas of part of the artist’s face then were used in this sculpture and in the larger Untitled Cast Bronze Relief 1974.
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In just a day, the dental material used had shrunk to a very small size. It is unfortunate that Wyrick did not try to make molds from these small pygmy-sized replicas of her face.
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Entrance on Time (on stand)
1983- 1985
Entrance on Time was cast by Quality Foundry, Stockton Iowa in 1983. This sculpture was first shown as a free-standing work on steel supports at Wyrick’s exhibition at the Muscatine Art Center in Muscatine Iowa.
As an edition of two, one of the two sculptures was purchased by the Muscatine Art Center and is on permanent display as a wall relief at the entrance to the lower level of the gallery. The other was given to the owner of the foundry in gratitude for the foundry’s casting the piece.
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Entrance on Time
1983- 1985
Merging Rivers
1998
Cast bronze / Oil paint
Merging Rivers is a cast silicon bronze wall relief with oil paints applied over a layer of Incralac. This sculpture is 62”w x 57.5”h and was installed in the lobby of the Mercy Medical Center, Cedar Rapids IA in July 1998.
Commissioned by the family of Babe Anderson (represented by his daughter, Karla Goettel of Cedar Rapids), it was presented it to the Cedar Rapids Mercy Medical Center to honor Mr. Anderson in August 1998. The presentation was followed by a reception in Goettel’s home.
Babe Anderson’s beginnings were in Nevada before his settling in Cedar Rapids where he built his highly successful Iowa business in early road and bridge building.
