Branko Medenica

Branko Medenica (born in Germany) is a sculptor and owner of Sculpture Sight at 417 25th Street South in Birmingham.

Medenica left Germany with his parents when he was a year old. They lived in New York and Pittsburgh before moving to Huntsville, where his father worked for NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. They moved away when he was transferred to the Goddard Space Flight Center in Washington D.C.

Medenica returned to Alabama to earn his undergraduate degree (1972) and a master's in business administration at Birmingham-Southern College. He then completed a master's in fine arts at the University of Mississippi in Oxford in 1975. After graduating he toured small communities in five states over seven months on the Michigan Art Train, then took a commission in Birmingham. He was soon offered work in a as a steel fabricator with the J. C. McGahan Company. When he was laid off in 1983 he opened his own studio.

Medenica co-founded the Birmingham Arts Commission in 1980 and was gallery director for the Greater Birmingham Arts Alliance from 1980 to 1981. He has served as a juror for fine arts at the Alabama State Fair, as an artist-in-residence at UAB, Birmingham City Schools and Mountain Brook High School, and as a guest lecturer at Washington & Lee University.

Works

Centurion

Charles Linn statue

• "Resurgence", Lakeview School (1976)
• "Roly-Poly Man", Underwood Park (1976)
• "Orbit" Frank Connery residence (1977)
• "Porpoise", Birmingham (1978)
• "Ribbon in Time", SouthTrust Tower (1980)
• "Elysian Gate", Ronald Goldberg residence (1981)
• "The Chessman", Bluemont, Virginia (1982)
• "The Rainbow", Rainbow Industrial Park, Phenix City (1983)
• Vulcan statue replica for Birmingham's sister city Hitachi, Japan (1984)
• "Duty Called", Alabama State Capitol, Montgomery (1985)
• "Minds in Balance", Mountain Brook High School (1986)
• "Dual Destiny", Winston County Courthouse (1987)
• "Spirit of Nursing", Auburn University Montgomery (1988)
• "Colonel Cullman", Cullman County Museum (1988)
• "Sky Dance", SportPlex, Hoover (1990)
• "Aspirations", UAB (1991)
• "Centurion: Jus Fides Libertatum", Mel Bailey Criminal Justice Center (1991)
• "Old George", Washington Hall, Washington & Lee University (1992)
• Samuel Ullman statue, Ullman Building, UAB (1993)
• "Leprechaun Lane", Courtney's Restaurant
• Jesse Owens statue, Oakville, Lawrence County (1996)
• "Yo-Yo Magic", Altamont School (1998)
• "Phase III", Phil Henle residence (1999)
• "Sacred Tears", Spring Park, Tuscumbia (2003)
• William Hooper Councill statue, Alabama A&M University, Huntsville (2004)
• "Triumph", Trinity Medical Center (2006)
• "Wings of Triumph", Auburn University (2009)
• John Winston statue, Old Houston Jail, Winston County (2009)
• George Watson bust, Jefferson County Bessemer Justice Center, (2009)
• Charles Linn statue, Linn Park (2013)

References

• Parson, Mary Jean (October 1989) "Accessible Art, Branko Medenica Wants to Create Art that All People Can See and Touch". Birmingham magazine
• Parker, Melissa (January 29, 2009) "Casting an image: Sculptor Branko Medenica molds a career in Alabama." Our Prattville
• Bryant, Joseph D. (January 23, 2012) "Statue coming in 2013 for Charles H. Linn, namesake of Birmingham's Linn Park." Birmingham News