Jay Goldstein (b. 1949) was born and raised in Allentown, PA, where he learned to sculpt wood with a pocketknife as a small child. Though his formal education and career were unrelated to art, he continued his childhood hobby into adulthood. As he prepared for retirement in the 2000s, Goldstein began studying art at a local studio, building on years of informal study in museums throughout Europe and the U.S. He paid special attention to the “Golden Section,” or dynamic symmetry—structure that guides his work even today.
Goldstein states that all of his work is “suffused with the dynamic symmetry of the Golden Section. A viewer…note rounded, flowing movements that often dominate my work.” Influenced by artists such as Henri Matisse, Constantin Brancusi, Pablo Picasso, and Amadeo Modigliani, Goldstein’s work relies on varying strategies of rendering rounded and/or flowing movements in art that are suggestive of design elements in beautiful construction. This attention to design detail has paid off for Goldstein.
Since retiring and focusing on his art, Jay Goldstein has exhibited his work at numerous juried exhibitions and competitions throughout the U.S., and he passes on his knowledge on to future artists through seminars, such as those at the Ward World Championships. Critics, collectors, and students alike are drawn to his strong sense of design and masterful execution, in styles ranging from impressionism to abstract expressionism. His work has received many accolades, including prestigious awards from the National Sculpture Society such as the Annual Awards Exhibition Silver Medal (2008), Sculptor Member of the Society (2010), the Pietro and Alfreida Montana Memorial Prize (2011, 2012), and the Margaret Hexter Prize for Creative Sculpture in the Round (2014). In 2018, he was elected as a Fellow in the National Sculpture Society, joining 118 artists worldwide in this distinguished position. His work is in the collections of the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, The Lee Yawkey Woodson Museum, Brookgreen Gardens and the Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum. Goldstein is one of the most recognized abstract wood sculptors in the U.S. today.