Warren Otis Angle, artist, Fleisher curator

Warren Otis Angle, 68, of South Philadelphia, exhibitions curator at the Fleisher Art Memorial for 16 years and an artist whose work often examined the balance between humans and nature, died of cancer Friday, Sept. 9, at home.

Mr. Angle exhibited widely in solo and group shows in the United States and Italy.

In 1983, Mr. Angle's work was selected for inclusion in a Wind Challenge Exhibit at Fleisher, an annual show featuring three regional artists chosen from hundreds of entries.

From 1994, when he became exhibition curator, until his retirement last year, Mr. Angle helped organize the challenge exhibit at Fleisher, in the city's Bella Vista section, where he was also on the faculty.

"Warren Angle was a sophisticated and clever artist and curator who provided inspiration and guidance for thousands of Fleisher students, hundreds of arts faculty, and dozens of Wind Challenge Exhibition artists," Matt Braun, Fleisher's executive director, wrote in a tribute.

In 2000, his installation at the Gershman Y in Philadelphia was described in an Inquirer headline as "Stark Naturalism."

For a piece titled The Banquet, the artist set a table with mirrored plates, huge black bandaged crows, and dried roses in bottles.

"Mr. Angle's installation comments drily on the transience of worldly pleasure such as eating in a vividly macabre way," said Inquirer art critic Edward J. Sozanski.

Mr. Angle's Wind Dance Pond, exhibited in 2002 at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, "speaks directly to the issue of human impact on nature," Sozanski said.

The artist placed eight life-size rabbits fabricated from foam and cotton wrapping on a grass berm. "The rabbits appear to be running toward the pond, chased by two garden cultivators - the symbolism isn't hard to grasp," Sozanski said.

For a 2005 exhibit at Abington Art Center, the artist created La Brea, an installation of tar-covered duck heads swimming in a pool of tar shaped like the continental United States.

Commenting in Philadelphia City Paper on the work, Mr. Angle conceded that he was making a political statement. "I was thinking about oil spills in Alaska, and there was one in the Delaware River at the time. I was thinking about the fact that this country is 5 percent, roughly, of the world, and we use 25 percent of the world oil resources."

Mr. Angle grew up on a farm in Indiana. His rural background informed his art, said his former wife, Janet Kaplan.

He earned a bachelor's degree in art education from Manchester College in Indiana and a master's degree in fine arts in ceramics and sculpture from Ohio State University. He then was a professor of ceramics at Plymouth State College in New Hampshire, where he and Kaplan met.

In 1980, they moved to Philadelphia, where he taught in local art schools before joining Fleisher.

He and Kaplan married in 1985 and, a few years later, purchased a former bottling works in Manayunk, which he renovated as a family home and artist's studio.

According to an article in Inquirer Magazine in 1991, the decor centered on Mr. Angle's collection of transformed found furniture decorated with calligraphy rendered in gesso, ink, and paint.

That year, his work was included in the inaugural exhibit, "Artists Choose Artists," at the Institute of Contemporary Arts' new building in University City.

In addition to his former wife, Mr. Angle is survived by a daughter, Dana Kaplan-Angle; life partner Nancy Wright; a sister; and a brother.

A memorial celebration is scheduled from 3 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29, at Bartram's Garden, 54th Street and Lindbergh Boulevard, Philadelphia 19143.

Contributions may be made to Bartram's Garden, a favorite site for Mr. Angle, who exhibited there in 1996.