The American Arts Guild and Gallery is proud to present
a gifted sculptor, Bill Hopen as our featured artist. Hopen, a
self-described urban refugee, lives in the small town of Sutton,
West Virginia.
Bill Hopen was born in Manhattan in l951. He
studied painting for four years at City University of
New York (Lehman College), then migrated to
West Virginia in his mid-twenties. Abandoning
abstract painting, he began to study the figure in his
rural studio. In the late 70's, his direct carvings in
wood and stone became the focus of a two-year
Artist's Residency supported by a state grant.
Hopen won his first competition for a public
sculpture commission in 1982, and soon became well-known for
his many works installed at museums, universities, churches,
hospitals and government buildings throughout the state of
West Virginia. Major bronze commissions in other states and
national press coverage of his work show that Hopen is more
than a regional artist; he is building a national reputation.
His smaller works of personal expression have been acquired for private and corporate
collections in New York, Chicago, Miami, Paris, Athens, and Singapore. One of his most
important commissioned projects, a 10 foot tall bronze of Senator Robert C. Byrd on a large
marble pedistal, is a permanent fixture on the floor of the rotunda beneath the West Virginia
Capitol dome. It is a piece of West Virginia history, made 100% in state by Bill Hopen and
assisting sculptor Kathy Brunt and Foundry man George Houston.
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