Harold Balazs

Harold Balazs is an American sculptor and artist whose work has been featured in exhibits and public art installations throughout the Northwest, United States. He is known for creating large, abstract metal sculptures, but also creates murals, jewelry, furniture, drawings, stained glass and wooden boats.

Balazs lives in Mead, Washington and refers to the studio in his barn as Mead Art Works.

He was born in 1928, in a small Ohio farming community during the Depression Era. While his mother encouraged his interest in art, he honed his skills in his fathers sheet metal and air conditioning business. He followed his parents to Spokane, WA where he majored in art at Washington State University. It is there that he met his wife, Rosemary.

His first collaboration for commissioned work was a mural at Ridpath Hotel in Spokane, produced with Patrick Flammia in 1951. Also becoming a leading liturgical artist, with sculpture, painting, stained glass, and reliefs inside over 200 churches and synagogues in the Northwest. Balazs served three terms as Washington State Arts Commissioner and helped draft the state's percent for art legislation.

The Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane, WA celebrated his life and his work that it owns, with an exhibit in 2010. His work is also exhibited at The Art Spirit Gallery of Fine Art in Coeur d' Alene, ID where has shown for 16 years. His most recent featured show is September 2013 -Harold Balazs: Alive at 85 and Mel McCuddin: Lately 80. He has also shown with Timothy C. Ely in a show titled Illuminating the Subconscious in 2010.

He is a featured artist of Tinman Gallery in Spokane, WA.

Balazs has contributed a great deal to the downtown landscape of Spokane, with many of his works featured prominently in Riverfront Park. Sculptures including the Rotary Riverfront Fountain, Centennial Sculpture, and Untitled (aka "Lantern"). Other works can be found throughout Spokane, including Wildflowers of the Northwest, a sculpture titled Canoe at Lewis and Clark High School, and the facade of Hennessy Funeral Home.

In Idaho, several metal sculptures are installed on college campuses. Works installed at North Idaho College, include I must got down to the seas again and Reflections. Works at the University of Idaho include the Hartung Theater Sculptureand Theophilus Tower Sculpture.

Other works include Seattle Project, which is located at the Henry M. Jackson Federal Office Building.

Several of his works have incorporated the phrase "Transcend the Bullshit". One sculpture that is untitled, but referred to as Lantern, has gained notoriety because you must climb to the top of the sculpture to view the hidden message. Climbing it though, is presumed to be risky or perhaps illegal.

Harold Balazs and Friends, With a Foreword by Tom Kundig was published by the University of Washington Press in 2010.