Beginning on Thursday, sculptor Michael Todd will be featured for one month in the winter show in the Fine Arts Gallery at West Los Angeles College.

Todd spotlights sculptural works in wood, metal, and clay. His career has spanned 50 years, and he has worked in many major museums.

A reception, free to the public, will be held in the Fine Arts Gallery on Thursday from 5 o’clock to 7.

Parking is available in the adjacent parking structure for $2 (exact change needed). The show is currated by Molly Barnes, art dealer, lecturer and radio personality, is curating the show.

 Mr. Todd’s work can be found in many public collections, including the Whitney Museum, the Metropolitan Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum, Storm King Art Center, the Norton Simon Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In addition to Bennington and UCSD, Mr. Todd has held teaching positions at CalArts, Otis College of Art and Design and U. C. Irvine.

Mr. Todd’s first solo exhibitions took place at the Hanover Gallery in London and Pace Gallery in New York. His work was included in the Whitney Museum’s Annuals of 1964, 1966, 1967 and 1970 and LACMA’s landmark exhibition American Sculpture of the Sixties. While teaching at Bennington College, he was invited to join the Arts Faculty at the University of California, San Diego in 1968.

Thanks to the abundance of steel from the shipbuilding industry in San Diego, Mr. Todd shifted from wood to metal and began to develop his own mature artistic vocabulary.

Inspired by Zen concepts and calligraphy and the freedom of expression in California of the late ‘60s, Mr. Todd used discarded shapes found in steel scrap yards to explore the cosmos and composition in space. When he moved to Los Angeles in the late 1970s, he began to show at Nicholas Wilder Gallery and Torture Gallery. In the 1980s, Mr. Todd shifted his focus to bronze, creating the components of his sculptures by pouring molten metal into a bed of sand.

The ‘90s found Mr. Todd immersed in drawing and painting. In 2003, he began working in clay, and has created a series of ceramic wall pieces that evoke his first “fetish” series and also freestanding work that draws from his years of investigation of the circle, gravity and space.

When asked about his approach to art, Mr. Todd explained:

“I go where my brain takes me. Certain metaphysical themes, some spiritual themes come out. But I do not like to pretend I’m a saint. I like to play. For me, art is a high form of play.”

Ms. Long-Coffee may be contacted at LongCofm@wlac.edu