Robert F. Delaney: Biographical Vitae:

Robert F. Delaney was born in Philadelphia in 1951 and as an infant moved with his family to Colorado Springs where he was raised.  Interested in art since childhood, Delaney made his first mobiles when he was only thirteen years old.  

In 1971 and 1972, Delaney attended Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado.  From 1976 to 1979, Delaney attended the University of Colorado at Boulder, and pursued a major in art history.  From 1979 to 1981, Delaney attended the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and earned his BA degree in sculpture there.

Delaney has shown his work in exhibitions but has mostly done commissioned pieces.  His distinctive kinetic sculptures are in private collections around the country, particularly in California, with pieces in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Palm Springs.  In a fall 2001 feature depicting artist Rex Ray’s San Francisco loft that appeared in Metropolitan Home, a Delaney mobile is pictured and discussed.  Delaney’s first important exhibition was at the prestigious Ron Judish Fine Arts in the summer of 2002 and it was reviewed in both the Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Post.  

In 2004 Delaney executed his first monumental suspension sculpture, “Silver Cloud”, a thirty-eight-foot-tall aluminum sculpture hung in the downtown Denver offices of Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber and Schreck.  A model of “Silver Cloud” is in the permanent collection of Denver’s Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art.

In 2005, Delaney carried out “Red Pheasant” a nearly thirty-foot tall aerial sculpture for the atrium of the New Frontier Bank in Greeley, designed by David Tryba Architects.  Also in 2005, Delaney created “Il Rosso Grande”, a major sculpture for the ballroom lobby of the Denver Grand Hyatt Colorado Convention Center Hotel by Klipp.  “Il Rosso Grande” has been pictured and discussed in the October, 2006 issue of Southwest Art and in the July, 2007 issue of Art & Auction  

In 2006, Delaney completed “Giddy-Up”, a stabile, which was erected on the roof of Denver’s Zeitgeist Gallery. “Giddy-Up” was discussed in the Rocky Mountain News.

In 2007, Delaney created a suspension sculpture “Luna“ for the Garth residence in Beaumont, Texas, and extended “Silver Cloud” the height of an entire floor as a result of the expansion of the Brownstein firm.

In 2008, Delaney created a sculpture “Point” for the lobby of Monroe Point in Denver, a luxury residential complex; and he was the subject of an exhibit at Walker Fine Art in the spring of 2008, which was reviewed in the Rocky Mountain News.  Also, in 2008, Delaney created a mobile “Forward” for the Jewish Family Services Building in memory of Joan Sapiro.  Later that same year, Delaney created “Circle Beats the Square” a monumental Plexiglas and aluminum suspension sculpture for Buckingham Properties in Indianapolis.  A piece by Delaney, “Deer” was published in the fall 2008 issue of the magazine American Contemporary Art.

In 2009, four pieces of his work are included in the ground-breaking and lavishly illustrated book, Colorado/Abstract written by Michael Paglia and Mary Voelz Chandler that was published by New Mexico’s Fresco Fine Art Publications.  In association with the publication of Colorado/Abstract, Delaney’s work was included in the accompanying exhibition that was also called “Colorado/Abstract” presented at Denver’s Center for Visual Art.  Simultaneously his pieces were also featured in an exhibit at T Gallery.

In 2010, Delaney was the subject of a solo exhibit at Denver’s William Havu Gallery and was subsequently included in the group show, Abstraction.  

In 2011, two pieces by Delaney, “Dialogue 3” and “Bad Kitty”, were acquired by the Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art in Denver.  

In 2012, Delaney created a monumental outdoor sculpture entitled “Big Dialogue 1” for the grounds of the Woodward-Hall residence in Denver.  

In 2013, Delaney was commissioned to create a monumental sculpture for the Fulginiti Pavilion for Bioethics and the Humanities at the Anschutz Medical Campus of the University of Colorado, entitled “Bright Idea”, it was completed in 2014.  

In 2015, Delaney created a monumental suspension sculpture for Park Towne Place in Philadelphia.  That same year he was the subject of a solo at the William Havu Gallery. The Kirkland Museum acquired Delaney’s “PD-8 Fraternal Twin Sharon”.

In 2016, Delaney was the subject of an exhibition at the Steamboat Springs Art Center.

In 2017, Delaney took on a multiple sculpture commissions for a private collector in Denver. Also that year, the Kirkland Museum added to their collection of Delaney pieces by acquiring “PD-6 Fraternal Twin Sheila”.

In 2018, the monumental Delaney suspension piece “Big Red Flat” was included in the exhibition, The New Regionalisms presented at the McNichols Civic Building in Denver. Also, in 2018, Delaney was the subject of a solo at Denver’s William Havu Gallery.

In 2019, Delaney created a monumental site-specific suspension sculpture, “ATE 4 (Waiting for Fall)” for the atrium at the Arvada Center of the Arts and Humanities as part of the exhibition, Colorado Abstract +10 marking the 10th anniversary of the publication of Colorado Abstract.

In 2020, Delaney created a monumental site-specific piece, “ATE 5 (Anticipation of Spring)”. for the entry to the second-floor galleries at the McNichols Civic Center Building for the exhibition, Lavender Mist: Gay Men in Contemporary Art in Colorado. Also in 2020, Delaney was the subject of a solo at the William Havu Gallery.

Delaney’s sculptures are—“…delicately balanced and graced with highlights of color…”

Mary Chandler, Rocky Mountain News

“…colorful variations of interconnected constructions of wire and curvilinear fins…”

               Kyle MacMillan, The Denver Post

“If you enter a Colorado building and encounter a striking large-scale suspended kinetic sculpture, most likely you are in the presence of a work by Robert Delaney.  These aerial flights of beauty are the result of a lifelong interest in making sculptural work that moves, and that at heart carries the sensibility of a particular object interpreted through abstraction into a conflation of planes and volumes.”

Excerpted from the book Colorado Abstract/Paintings and Sculpture written by Michael Paglia and Mary Chandler (Fresco Fine Art Publications, Albuquerque)

Robert Delaney

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