Urban theorists posit that we experience the city by the way in which we move through it. My work is directly inspired by my daily commutes in New York on foot, bicycle, bus or train through an ever-evolving architectural landscape. Primarily, I am interested in architectural failure, construction, development and urban renewal. My work consists of drawings and architecturally-flawed installations made out of paper, cardboard, wax or foil. My work comes from a place of great anxiety about things being unstable or falling apart.
I am also amazed at the amount of redevelopment taking place in Lower Manhattan and the waterfront in Brooklyn and Queens. It seems there is a constant constructing, destructing, excavating and rebuilding taking place in these cities-the rate of redevelopment is exciting and alarming. I am interested in issues that come with development and urban renewal, such as the fragility of communities and lost histories, but also how these issues serve as metaphors for memory and personal upheaval. Terms that feel important to the process of creating this work are foundation, preservation, façade and retrofit.
In the Weakness series, I explore the bridge as metaphor and engineering triumph. I am concerned with the bridge as aesthetic form, but also as an engineering phenomenon in a world where error abounds; I am drawn to its beauty yet frightened by its frailty.
Important elements in my work are engineering, scale, shadows and easily recognizable materials. The construction of each piece is very labor-intensive, yet once built, the work will soon break, decay or be deconstructed. In this way there is a sense of urgency for experiencing the piece, as this is temporary work. With this work I intend to generate questions and emphasize tension relating to dialectics of creation and destruction, vulnerability and indestructibility, the light and the dark, and stability and the tenuous.
Exhibitions
2007 Workspace Program 2001-2007, Dieu Donne Papermill, New York
On The Third Day, 3B Space, New York
Per Square Foot, Dieu Donne Papermill, New York
Stop Pause Forward, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco
Open Studio, Chashama Project Exhibition Studio, New York
2006 Open Studios, LMCC Workspace:120 Broadway, New York
2005 GenArt Emerge 2005, Warfield Building, San Francisco
Sonya Blesofsky, Plane Space, New York
San Francisco Art Institute MFA Graduate Exhibition, Fort Mason, San Francisco
2004 Ephemeral Feminism, Crucible Steel Gallery, CELLspace, San Francisco
By Any Means Un/Necessary, Mission 17, San Francisco
Unfurled, Pond Gallery, San Francisco
Continuing MFA Show, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco
Constructions, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco
2003 Memory/Loss, Lacunae Gallery, San Francisco
Assembly, Crucible Steel Gallery, CELLspace, San Francisco
2000 Playground, Senior Gallery, UC Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz
Awards & Residencies
2007 Smack Mellon Studio Artist, Brooklyn, NY
Chashama Project Exhibition Studio Grantee, New York, NY
2006 Workspace Artist in Residence, Dieu Donne Papermill, New York, NY
Artist in Residence, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Workspace:120 Broadway, New York, NY
2005 Visiting Artist, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco
Artist in Residence, Plane Space, New York, NY
Teaching Assistantship, San Francisco Art Institute, Spring
2004 Teaching Assistantship, San Francisco Art Institute, Fall
2000 Robert Irwin & Susan Hyde Benteen Art Projects Grant
Artist Lectures
2005 San Francisco Art Institute, Tony Labat's New Genres class
Bowdoin College, Mark Whethli's Senior Studio class
Bibliography
Baker, Kenneth. "Nice Surprises at This Year's ‘Emerge' Show for New Talent," San Francisco Chronicle, November 15, 2005
Baker, RC. "Short List/Voice Choices," The Village Voice, Sept. 28-Oct. 4, 2005,
Vol. L No. 39
Education
San Francisco Art Institute, Master of Fine Arts, Painting, 2005
University of California Santa Cruz, Bachelor of Arts, Community Studies & Studio Art, 2000