Paul DiPasquale


Paul DiPasquale is an American sculptor living and working in Richmond, Virginia. Among his most famous sculptures are the statue of tennis star and Richmond native Arthur Ashe located on Monument Avenue in Richmond and the King Neptune statue at the entrance to Neptune Park on the boardwalk at Virginia Beach. His native American statue "Connecticut" has been moved several times to different locations. Originally it was installed in Washington D.C. in 1983 to honor Native Americans. From there it was moved to the Richmond Braves baseball stadium. When the Richmond team became the Richmond Flying Squirrels, the sculpture was moved to Tobacco Row and placed atop a former Lucky Strike factory.

Education and teaching

DiPasquale's undergraduate degree was in the field of sociology with an art minor at the University of Virginia. He trained at the Boston Architectural Center and received his Masters degree in sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1977. He has been associated as an instructor, resident artist, or visiting artist at Northern Virginia Community College, Maryland Institute, American Academy in Rome, International City of the Arts in Paris, William and Mary College and Virginia Commonwealth University.

Exhibitions and indoor sculpture

In 2012, DiPasquale presented an exhibition of sculpted Ears at art6 Gallery. He also participated in an event presented by Gasa Gasa, a Freret Street club in New Orleans. In Richmond, he participated in gallery exhibitions at Art6 and Artspace.
DiPasquale's Neptune maquette was placed in 2017 in the main visitor-welcoming lobby of the historic Main Street Station in Richmond.

Outdoor sculpture

DiPasquale's outdoor sculptures include: the King Neptune in Virginia Beach, Virginia; the controversial Arthur Ashe monument on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia; and the "Connecticut" statue now owned by Odell Architecture. The name of the statue "Connecticut" comes from the Eastern Algonquin Native American  word, "Quinnehtukqut" In 2010, DiPasquale placed on permanent loan a smaller version of Neptune to the Glen Allen Cultural Arts Center in Henrico County, Virginia for its garden. The Virginia Historical Society describes Pasquale's "Headman" as a "9 1/2 foot tall bronze sculpture" commemorating the "contributions of a black boatman" on the James River. "Lily" by DiPasquale is a life-size cow made from epoxy for the Billings Farm and Museum in Vermont. In 2016 Polish artist Olek added a gas mask to her commissioned crocheted installation on the oceanfront King Neptune statue. The gas mask was not part of her accepted original MOCA proposal and caused a Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art controversy and removal of the installation.

Biography

DiPasquale was twice a visiting sculptor at the American Academy in Rome. His office and "laboratory" in his back yard in Fulton Hill in Richmond is a place where he experiments to create small models for his statues of notable people such as Thomas Jefferson and General Colin Powell. Controversy was involved in the placement of DiPasquale's Arthur Ashe monument on Monument Avenue, both when it was first placed on that historic site and again in 2017 when there were demonstrations to remove the Confederate monuments from the avenue of famous Richmonders.