Gregory Warmack (1948-2012), also known as Mr. Imagination, created elaborately adorned sculptures echoing ancient and royal artifacts. Transforming everyday objects and found materials into elaborate headdresses, totemic scepters and thrones, Mr. Imagination said he preserved discarded consumer goods in his work ‘to make people aware of the things we have used in history,’ noting that many of the materials in his pieces are increasingly being replaced by plastic.
In ‘sandstone’ (actually, discarded foundry core material) he carved names and phrases, that came to adorn shelves and counters of countless restaurants, bars and shops around Chicago. The world became his studio.
Mr. Imagination grew up on the South Side of Chicago. His creative life began when, at a young age, he started painting on discarded cardboard and stones, always encouraged by his family. As a teenager, he crafted jewelry, wooden canes and dashikis to sell in the neighborhood.
Works for the exhibition were selected to convey dual aspects of his expressive abilities and his personality, the grand and the modest.
Watch a video of Mr. Imagination, with people talking about Mr. Imagination’s life and their experience with him. As well as the impact that Mr. Imagination had on Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
