2020 Fellows

National Sculpture Society is proud to announce our newest Fellows:

Meredith Bergmann

In August 2020, Bergmann’s Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument will be unveiled in Central Park, becoming the first statue in the Park to honor real women. Bergmann has also sculpted the Boston Women’s Memorial for the city of Boston, MA; the September 11th Memorial in the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, New York City and the Marian Anderson monument for Converse College, Spartanburg, SC.  Bergmann’s portrait of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is in the collections of Justice Ginsburg and Columbia University, New York City.

LeaAnn Cogswell

Working in bronze, terracotta, glass and other mediums, Cogswell considers it “a great privilege to work regularly from life.” She finds the human figure “fascinating and amazingly beautiful, even in all its not-so-perfect forms.” Cogswell’s first show with National Sculpture Society was in 2009 – she won the Gold Medal for her work Trust.  She has been in six other NSS exhibitions since, receiving the Agop Agopoff Memorial Prize in 2015. Cogswell is also active in the Society of Connecticut Sculptors.

D.L. Engle

Engle is a Sculptor Member of the California Art Club and an active member of NSS’ Southern California Sculpture Community. She feels that “There is a quality that animals possess that has intrigued humans since our beginning. With reverence they were painted and carved on cave walls. Through all ages and cultures, they have inhabited our dreams and mythologies. We see distilled in them all the powers and mysteries of Nature and so have longed for a closer understanding and kinship with that mystery.”  For her own work, which is mainly inspired by animals, she won National Sculpture Society’s Marilyn Newmark Memorial Grant (2014) and the Margaret Hexter Prize (2015).

Ben Hammond

Set to be unveiled in 2020, the State of Utah selected Hammond as the sculptor of the Martha Hughes Cannon monument for the National Statuary Hall.  Hammond also has work installed at the Utah Women’s Walk in Lehi, UT; the Fallen Veterans Memorial in Blackfoot, ID and since 2007, Hammond has completed portrait busts for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Hammond is a three‐time recipient of National Sculpture Society’s Dexter Jones Award.

Joshua Koffman

Koffman has earned several awards from the National Sculpture Society, winning the exhibition Silver Medal and the Alex J. Ettl Grant in 2013 and the exhibition Bronze Medal in 2015 and 2016.  He co‐founded the Philadelphia Traction Company, a collaborative workspace and art center, where he continues to model, cast, and create.  Pope Francis blessed Koffman’s Synagoga and Ecclesia in Our Time, which is installed on the grounds of St. Joseph University (Philadelphia, PA).  Koffman recently sculpted Run for the Maguire Hayden Real Estate Company, to symbolize the values of perseverance and determination, among others.

Alex Palkovich

Palkovich’s awards include a sculpture award for John Paul II from Allied Artists of America (2014) and 2nd Honorable Mention for Father of the Nation from the Portrait Society of America (2015). In 2017, Brookgreen Gardens selected his bronze, I’m Tall, for inclusion in their outdoor sculpture collection. Palkovich has several monumental sculptures in his home state of South Carolina.  His Starr Ward and Beverly Hazelwood Monument is in front of the Francis Marion University Performing Arts Center and his General Francis Marion is in the Johnsonville Veterans Memorial Park.

Paul Rhymer

Rhymer’s work is part of the permanent collections of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo (Washington, DC); the National Museum of Natural History (Washington, DC); the Denver Zoo (Denver, CO) and the Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum (Oradell, NJ).  Three of Rhymer’s works are part of NatureWorks, a non-profit which has placed wildlife monuments in Tulsa, OK in honor of those who have volunteered their time and energy to wildlife conservation.  Rhymer’s Alaska Polar Bear, the 28th monument to be dedicated, stands in the plaza between the Tulsa County Courthouse and the Tulsa Public Library. Rhymer is currently on the Board of the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art (Salisbury, MD).

Dale Weiler

Weiler, a sculptor and conservationist, is especially drawn towards endangered species and misunderstood animals such as the hellbender, bats and the red wolf.  This past October, Weiler unveiled Just Settling In, his sculpture of a wolf and pup, at the Zoo Knoxville in Tennessee. His work is part of the permanent collection of the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum (Wausau, WI), the North Carolina Zoo (Asheboro, NC) and Brookgreen Gardens (Pawleys Island, SC).

According to NSS’ by-laws, a Sculptor Member shall become a Fellow upon the nomination by a majority vote (or unanimous written consent) of the members of the Board and the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the Fellows and Board Members voting at a General Meeting or special meeting of the members of the Society. Criteria for consideration of election to membership as a Fellow include: professional development in the field of Sculpture, participation in the Sculpture Community, educational contributions to Sculpture, and participation in the National Sculpture Society.

On February 1, 2020, the ballots were counted at NSS’ General Meeting. All eight sculptors received the necessary two-thirds affirmative vote to advance. Congratulations!

Image on Sculpture News: ‘Morning Sun’ by LeaAnn Cogswell, FNSS