KANSAS CITY, MO.- Artist Roxy Paine’s sculpture-making machine has been churning out sculptures, called Scumaks, in Bloch Lobby at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art since April. Three of the sculptures, donated by Paine and James Cohan Gallery, will be retained by the Museum. The more than 40 sculptures were winnowed down to five choices by Jan Schall, curator of modern & contemporary art. From those choices, the public, the Museum staff and volunteers, and the Museum’s Board of Trustees voted for their favorite. The public chose #20, staff and volunteers chose #1, and the Board of Trustees chose #24.

“All of Roxy Paine’s work addresses the relationship between what occurs naturally and that which is technologically produced,” said Jan Schall, Sanders Sosland Curator, Modern & Contemporary Art. “The organic configurations that result from this sculpture-making machine follow the laws of gravity.”

The machine, or Scumak, which is short for Sculpture Maker, celebrates the installation of Paine’s 56-foot tall stainless-steel Dendroid, Ferment, in the Museum’s Kansas City Sculpture Park.

The Scumak machine will be taken down when the exhibition, Roxy Paine: Scumaks and Dendroids, closes this Sunday, Aug. 28.

Born in McLean, VA in 1966, Paine hitchhiked around the country at the age of 15, taking odd jobs and making drawings. He was a student at the Pratt Institute from 1986 to 1988, before taking a job with a Brooklyn fabrication shop, where he worked until he opened his studio in 1992. Paine has been praised for his supple, improvisational touch with a material as resistant as steel. He explores culturally infiltrated nature using various methods, sometimes combining painting and sculpture. Paine gravitates toward materials that are generally regarded as ugly or abhorrent. Dry rot, fungi, poison ivy and weeds have all been featured in his work.