Sculptors working in steel often get lost in the craft, pursuing the perfect weld and flawless surfaces. They prefer to disappear the process that produces the work. While Garber’s works have shiny surfaces, their visible insides are gummy with welds that expose their piece-by-piece construction. Each object consists of hundreds of identical units. The forms arise from the welding of one aluminum bar to another. Each section is fixed at a slight angle to the adjoining piece. The bars are joined at the back, and the slight gap between each bar at the surface creates a curvy planar surface. Even though these black, non-abraded elements disappear into the interior, enough remains visible to contrast with the gleaming surface. The joining and spacing create continuously looping and expanding wave-like forms, organic but highly structured. The contours appear to be spontaneous and intuitive, although the demands of this kind of fabrication require a specific welding strategy, a thought-out sequence and specific arrangement. Garber’s work is distinctively structured in his mind, but the beginning and end points conform only roughly to the preliminary idea. The collaboration between intuition and strategy makes his work unexpected and surprising.
–Kathleen Whitney (Sculpture Magazine), 2009