Johnny Poux

Upcoming Shows

Concrete on Main Street, 2010

Sculpture: MAY 15 & 16 1 pm @ Willow Kiln Park

Buster Keaton Film: May 15 @ 3 pm, May 16 @ 12 noon at the Rosendale Theater

On May 15th & 16th, for the second year, Rosendale resident and modern designer, Johnny Poux, will use the material that made Rosendale famous in uncommon ways. Concrete on Main Street is free to the public and will feature large-scale kinetic sculpture in cast concrete, wood and steel, amidst the park's backdrop of now-defunct cement kilns and the looming train trestle.

About the 2009 show, Poux states, "Willow Kiln Park was a great place for the show. Historic significance aside, this space provided an expansive natural "room" to take in larger sculptures." More than 240 adults and children assembled from the Hudson Valley, NYC, and Westchester. The work was still accessible and the noise level reasonable. Parents could linger while their children played in the small stream that trickles through the site...

This year's event will not only show Poux's signature sculptures, it will include showing of Buster Keaton's classic film "The General" at the Rosendale Movie Theatre. Ticket sales for this family-friendly event will support the Rosendale Theatre Collective. Viewing this iconic film provides an exceptional experience of cinema with a potential for broad appeal to generations of people who have never experienced a silent movie on a big screen.

Food, drink and advertising are being provided by our sponsors: Chronogram, Town of Rosendale, Market Market Cafe, Rosendale Cafe, Alternative Baker, Red Brick Tavern, and Keegan Ales.

Why do it?

Rosendale, a picturesque town in the Hudson Valley, is here because of what is beneath it. In 1825, the discovery of Natural Cements made Rosendale, NY famous and for a century Rosendale mined, cooked and sold its cement at a furious pace to a growing country that was ravenously expanding.

Rosendale Cements became world renowned and used in the construction of some of the most enduring landmarks of the nation: The Brooklyn Bridge, the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, the wings of the U.S. Capitol, the lower 152' of the Washington Monument, the Croton Aqueduct and dams, the Pennsylvania Railroad tunnels, the New York State Thruway, and thousands of other public works projects. By the early 20th Century, Rosendale Cement was replaced by Portland Cement. The canal that ran though town transporting coal and cement closed, and Rosendale's economy slowed into a depression from which it has never recovered. The industrial archaeology of Rosendale is everywhere. Giant stone and brick cement kilns haunt the hillsides and abandoned quarries as they slowly degenerate. In town, the idle train trestle is a prominent presence, looming approximately one hundred forty feet above the Rondout Creek, which runs parallel to Main Street. The architectural relics that hover in this town are reminders of diligent people, steamrolled by an economic boom and bust. Concrete on Main Street pays homage to and reminds us of this town's roots and its forgotten people.

A graduate of Pratt Institute (PI) Johnny Poux began his relationship to modern design and, in particular, concrete in 1985 when he attended PI as an Industrial Design student. As a modern designer he was part of the early movement to use concrete in the design and fabrication of tables, pedestals, counters and seating.

Currently, the designer and sole proprietor of johnny poux design, Poux has worked in the design field creating modern furniture, interiors and lighting for industry as well as innumerable custom pieces for private clients. Prior to this, he was the head restoration carpenter and designer for Ashwood Restoration in Tarrytown, New York, where he restored many historical landmark buildings in Westchester County, New Jersey and Connecticut.

In 1999 Poux launched his first furniture line at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City, when the Chicago Tribune said:

"The real showstoppers came from a young upstart named Johnny Poux. The 33-year-old New York designer, who worked as a carpenter specializing in historical restoration for the last 10 years, introduced a line of small tables and seating pieces along with a look he calls "21st Century primitive with flavorings of Modernism."

Since this time, johnny poux design has been featured in the New York Times Home Section, the Wall Street Journal, Paper Magazine, Journal News, Home Style, Interior Design, Upstate House, and Trendsetter Magazine in London. Twelve years later, his designs are characterized by subtle curves and volume that have grace, balance and soul.

Over the years Johnny's many custom design clients have included notables like, Ann Klein, Boris Klapwald (Westchester, NY), David Ripp Interior Design, (NYC), Dick Clark Architecture, (Austin, Texas), Tricomi Salon, (NYC), and Citrus Restaurant, (NYC), where he created their cast concrete bar tops.

In 2008, Poux reinterpreted the uses of concrete when he produced the three-dimensional public exhibit and retrospective, Concrete on Main Street. Funded by the Ulster County Cultural Services and Promotion Fund, the exhibit included Poux's sizable cast concrete primitive shapes and forms, totems, pillars, and furniture which were installed into Rosendale's Willow Kiln Park amidst a backdrop of old cement kilns. The exhibit's sculptural elements juxtaposed minimal modern form and Rosendale, NY's industrial roots. Poux's kinetic concrete sculpture, "The Machine", was invited to be exhibited at the Unison Arts' 11th Annual Invitational Sculpture Exhibit.