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Energetic figures, posed at the brink of balance, animate the mythological world of sculptor Boban. Athletes and angels, heroes and artists, musicians with violins or exotic horns are captured in metal at the most dynamic moment of the creative act.

"I want to sculpt the highest moment, the moment when my figures reach to the sky like spires of a cathedral. I want to express the electric impulse. I want my sculptures fused with the sparks of life, poised at the last moment of balance. My figures are leaders, winners in the human experience."

Boban, a native of Yugoslavia, was trained in art at the prestigious Belgrade Academy of Art before arriving in the United States in 1991, in search of artistic liberty and opportunity. Rigorous academic training in Belgrade along with nurturing by master of art, Nandor Glid, imbued Boban with the knowledge, truth, honesty and moral sustenance required to live the life of an artist. Upon coming to the United States, Boban felt free to find his unique mode of expression and develop beyond his foundation in European academic studies of the classical art.

In search of unique statement, Boban experimented with assemblage, welding unique 'found materials' with his powerful torch. While searching for interesting objects to work with, a spoon, a seemingly simple common household item, captured his imagination. The half-moon smooth curve of the spoon intrigued him and aroused his vivid fantasy. With artistic mind and vision, Boban transformed the spoon into feathers of a wing or muscles covering a rib cage. The malleable spoon handle was twisted into sinews of an extended leg, or welded into part of an extended muscle of a leg, poised and ready to leap.

For Boban, the spoon ultimately took on a spiritual dimension, representing the nourishment of the human soul in its dynamic path towards personal fulfillment, power, creativity and success. Boban creates powerful maquettes by fusing, bending and shaping the spoon elements in the welding process. With his fiery welding torch, the artist maneuvers the flow of molten energy into mythological metal human shapes, infusing warmth and dimension into cold metal. "The welding process allows me to extend the figure at my will. It allows me artistic control of the material to shape to my vision, to control my dream."

The completed maquettes are cast into mold using the lost wax process and then dipped into glimmering nickel bronze to produce lustrous limited original editions of no more than 45. "First Violin," where a dancing figure intensely consumed in the act of music, is perched in an asymmetrical moment of ultimate silent sound.

Boban's exhilarated "Horn Blower," blowing extended double prong metal horns lurches from a pedestal as though ready to take flight. In "Natural Sounds" a man with a horn rides on the back of a mythological god. In the sculpture entitled, "Flauta" a fluted figure posed in dynamic on the edge of asymmetry blows lightly into a delicate silver metal flute.

In "Bass," a heroic musician is perched in the act of creating music the large stringed bass posed in front of him like a shiny shield. "My sculpture is Baroque," says Boban, "Baroque, like a cathedral, or like the convoluted phrasing of Baroque music." The dynamic poses of Boban's musical figures replicate the musical point and counterpoint of Baroque music. The sculpted figure is made of music and merges with the musical instrument that it plays. Many of the instruments in Boban's musical sculptures are created from his own imagination. Double horns and oddly shaped stringed instruments meld with the sculpted image of a musician so immersed in the creative act that the musical instrument is itself transformed.

Boban's sculptures grace major collections throughout the world. Hyatt Hotel owner, Jay Pritzker, film and musical star Tony Bennett, notable figures in the world of sports are collectors and have often become Boban's personal friends.

The monumental outdoor Bobbin work of "Shaka Zulu" in Chicago, a sculpture of "Pegasus' graces Montego Bay, Jamaica. Commissions for McDonald's are displayed at their corporate headquarters and a Boban sculpture commissioned by Exxon-Mobile is part of their private collection in Texas.

Internationally and nationally lauded, Boban was bestowed with the Award of Excellence at the Port Clinton Art Festival and appearances on "Good Morning America," "Wild Chicago" and "Starting Over" have won the artist major public acclaim and accolades.

Boban's unique vision fuses classical knowledge of the human anatomy with his very contemporary use of materials and ideas. The sculptor's passionate admiration for the sculpted art of classic masters the scale of Rodin and Michelangelo, melded with his own modern and very individual vision, is destined to make its impact on the art of the 21st century.

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