Sears Gallery Opens a new show: When Mentorship Turns into Friendship (and Great Art)
One of the best parts of my job at the Sears Art Museum is getting to work with artists whose stories are just as compelling as their art. And this fall, we’re bringing you a show that’s exactly that: Bruce Beasley & Albert Dicruttalo: From Mentor to Colleague.
This isn’t just two sculptors sharing a gallery—it’s the story of a mentorship that grew into a creative partnership.
What I love about this exhibition is how the works talk to each other—two artists, two generations, one shared belief that technology and tradition can live side by side in the studio. This embodies the polytechnic approach of education at Utah Tech.
Bruce Beasley has been making waves in the art world for more than sixty years. He started out at Dartmouth studying rocket engineering (yes, rocket engineering!) before realizing his heart was in sculpture and transferring to UC Berkeley. Even as a student, his work was so strong that the Museum of Modern Art added one of his early pieces, Tree House, to their collection. From there, his sculptures found homes in major museums around the world, and his massive public works—like Gathering of the Moons at the 2008 Beijing Olympics—have been seen by millions.
But here’s the thing about Bruce: he’s not just about art for art’s sake. He’s a problem-solver and an innovator—co-creating the first studio-scale 3D printer, figuring out how to cast transparent acrylic (something NASA and the Navy quickly put to use), and using VR and CAD before most artists had even heard of them. And for more than forty years, he’s been deeply involved in his West Oakland neighborhood, fighting for affordable housing, planting trees, improving infrastructure, and making sure art stays connected to community life.
Enter Albert Dicruttalo. Albert grew up in upstate New York, surrounded by the skeletons of old factories—imagery that quietly influences his work to this day. After earning his BFA in sculpture and working in computer graphics at Cornell, he packed up and moved to Oakland in 1996 to apprentice with Bruce. Over the years, his own artistic voice emerged—one that blends precise geometry with organic, flowing forms. Like Bruce, he’s tech-savvy, using tools like Rhino CAD and water jet fabrication, but always in service of creating something deeply human.
Bruce Beasley & Albert Dicruttalo: From Mentor to Colleague opens September 12, 2025, at the Sears Art Museum. We’re throwing an opening reception with light refreshments and a chance to hear from the curators (and maybe the artists themselves). I hope you’ll stop by—you’ll see how a mentorship that started nearly three decades ago is still shaping the future of sculpture today. The show runs through November 7, 2025.
https://www.searsart.com/
