A sculptress, best known for the statue The Fearless Girl located in front of the New York Stock Exchange in NYC.
Kristen Visbal was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, where her father worked as an American Foreign Service diplomat. After high school, she attended the University of Arizona and then the University of Maryland. Afterward, she worked shortly in sales and marketing before returning to school, graduating with a BA in Art from Salisbury University in Maryland. At the age of 33, Visbal began to work as an apprentice of wildlife sculptor William Turner. Then, she apprenticed at the Johnson Atelier Art Foundry for three years, practicing various aspects of Lost Wax Bronze Casting, including mold making and wax chasing.
At 36, Visbal moved to Lewes, Delaware, and established a studio of her own. Her work is both abstract and realistic and varied in size – from miniatures to public monuments. Her sculptures can be recognized for their fluid movement and fine details. Among her, public installations are- the 12-foot-high monument of Alexander Hamilton, the ten-foot Sea Express of a boy and dolphin for Jacksonville Beach, FL, and many more. Her most famous work is the statue of Fearless Girl installed at Manhattan’s Financial District. It is a 50 inches bronze figure of a girl holding her hands on her hips and chin up. It was commissioned to advertise an index fund that invests in companies with a high percentage of women in their management level. It was installed on March 7th, 2017, a day before International Women’s Day, facing the Charging Bull massive sculpture, but later moved to stand in front of the New York Stuck Exchange. The Fearless Girl statue calls for action to have more women involved in the business world, in companies boards, to increase gender diversity, and to change the future of women in the male-controlling finance field.
More Interesting Anecdotes:
- Her mother was a painter.
- It took her 400 hours to complete Fearless Girls – from sketch to cast.
- Fearless Girl’s original name was “Taking a Stand.”
