Alfredo Halegua

Alfredo Halegua creates monumental public sculpture that combines elements that have traditionally been considered separate modes of artistic expression---architecture and sculpture---to serve a variety of functions including buildings, fountains, and urban design.

One of his largest commissions was a prize-winner competitive project for the Charlotte-Macklenburg Government Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The work has five sculpture fountains spaced the length of a city block, circulating 5000 gallons of cascading water per minute.

His art has gone through various stages and has now arrived at the style of geometric abstraction, which has been described as architectonic because of the ingenious exploration of space relationships. For viewers walking around his pieces, there can be fascinating surprises.

He is also a wood carver, has pioneered in the use of plastics for sculpture since 1965, and has been a professor of sculpture at American University in Washington D.C.

Halegua was born in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1930, and in 1952, he graduated with BFA and MFA degrees with honors from the School of "Artes Plastic as," where he studied sculpture, painting, printmaking, and drawing. In 1959, he won First Prize and Gold Medal in the National Salon. Shortly after he came to the United States, where he became a citizen in 1965.

In 1969, Halegua exhibited his concepts of sculpture-buildings at the Henri Gallery in Washington DC, anticipating the architectural trend of buildings designed with a sculptural approach. Douglas Davis, art critic for "Arts Magazine," wrote: "Alfredo Halegua, who has been dealing with larger and larger forms in his sculpture for some time, took a crucial step into architecture, merging function and imagination, for once, satisfactorily."