Artists

Josep Rey Nadal

Mathematical artist and creative museographer

MMACA (Mathematics Museum of Catalonia)

La Garriga, Catalonia, Spain

jrey@xtec.cat

https://mmaca.cat

Statement

I am a mathematician, former teacher, artist, mathematical and creative museographer of Mathematics Museum of Catalonia. Part of my art consists in taking objects and forms from nature, irregular and perhaps with accidents such as breakage or insect attacks, and putting them in a new harmony. Each of the parties collaborate in this new harmony.

Artworks

Image for entry 'Tribute to H.S.M. Coxeter'

Tribute to H.S.M. Coxeter

40 x 40 x 40 cm

Raw cypress wood, paint, and mirrors

2020

With a small piece, consisting of a square, a third of a triangle, a fifth of a pentagon, and two quarters of a golden rhombus introduced in a kaleidoscope that repeats it 60 times, a deltoidirhombicosidodecahedron (proposed name) with 122 faces is formed. The deltoidal kaleidoscope is build with two Coxeter minimal kaleidoscopes. The wood of the pieces starts raw in the central part of each polygon and is sharpened through until it is coloured in the edge. It's a path from the irregular to the regular harmony. The aesthetics is inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's drawings. With this kaleidoscope we can create the polyhedrons with icosahedral symmetry, and we could also see the deltoidal hexecontahedron from a simple deltoid.