As one of 11 artists selected by the San Antonio River Foundation to enhance the beauty of their city’s iconic River Walk, Stuart Allen selected a stainless steel wire mesh manufactured by Banker Wire, Milwaukee, Wisconsin as his medium to apply his artistic expression.

Allen, who studied architecture at Kansas University and graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute, is a visual artist whose work deals with fundamental elements of perception such as light, time, gravity and space. He has works throughout the US and abroad.

“The Banker Wire stainless steel wire mesh had a perfect balance of wire spacing and diameter for my efforts challenging the boundaries between art and architecture,” said Allen. His minimalist suspended panel installations entitled 29° 25´ 57" N / 98° 29´ 13" W and 29° 26´ 00? N / 98° 29´ 07" W under the twin underpasses at McCullough and Brooklyn Avenue create a flickering, vibrant illusion and appear to shift and morph with changing patterns of texture and blocks of natural color for the passing visitors as their perspectives shift. The permanent art displays are 40' x 10' installations consisting of 300 24”x48” individual, suspended, stainless steel panels – each enclosing five layers of woven, architectural mesh. The three inner layers of mesh are treated with powder-coated color offering the illusion. A total of 2,400 square feet of stainless steel wire mesh was used.

“The material required for the project needed to be storm and weather resistant,” added Allen. “Banker Wire provided excellent product in a very timely and cost-effective manner. They even rushed samples to me to test my applications beforehand.”

Banker Wire vice president Harrison Horan said the M13Z-179 is a versatile wire mesh lending itself well to diverse architectural considerations. It has a rigid cable weave and is available in copper-based alloys, aluminum, mild steel and stainless steel.