My work talks quietly about the underlying significance of the domestic sphere on artist production. It argues for the relevance of craft, specifically ceramics and fiber arts, by creating a conversation between the two mediums. Displaying a fascination with the way fiber marks clay, my ceramics exhibit just how subtle those marks can be.
The focus on embroidery, sites my work inside the home: behind lacy window curtains, sitting on a lap in a small frame hoop. It co-mingles the signifiers of handwork with those of precious, porcelain keepsakes – handmade and handheld – layering the embroidered fabric onto the domestic vessels. Suffused with nostalgia, the hard, finished china objects are both familiar and quite odd, carrying the curves of the cloth, and the impression of each stitch, making the abundant fecundity of the home space visible.
Artist Biography
My practice spans categories of ceramics, fibers, sculpture, video, performance and installation to create conversations about the domestic sphere. In June and July 2017 I was an artist-in-residence at Guldagergaard in Denmark, with “The Architecture of Remembering,” an exhibition about the work of Nina Hole. “Let me clear up a few things,” (2016 MFA Thesis Show, Tyler School of Art) recreated an elaborate domestic scene with thousands of handmade objects, and centered on a 9-hour video, “Puzzle,” which showed a pair of hands working on a jigsaw puzzle. “Funeral for Minimalism,” an installation at the Tyler School of Art in 2014, critiqued the Dia Beacon exhibition which made no mention of Ana Mendieta’s death in its Andre show.
Since 2012, I’ve worked out of my studio at the Crane Old School in Philadelphia, constantly relying on a varied background which includes electronics, programming, pie making, quantitative economics, dog walking and critical theory.
Education
2016 Temple University, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA MFA, Ceramics
1990-1991 University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA Graduate courses in Critical Theory
1985 Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA BA, Philosophy
Awards & Honors
2019 Residency, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson VT, March.
2017 Artist-in-Residence, Guldagergaard, International Ceramic Research Center, Skælskør, Denmark, June-July.
2016 Project Completion Grant, Tyler School of Art.
Residency
2017 Guldagergaard, International Ceramic Research Center, Skælskør, Denmark
Professional Experience
1996 - present Owner, Current Designs, Inc Co-Founded and manage a small high-tech company which makes instrumentation for medical and scientific researchers.
1986 - 1996 Editor, American Economic Review and International Economic Review
Fact Checker, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Publications
Exhibitions
Solo
2019 The Men's Room, The Crane, Philadelphia, PA.
2017 The Architecture of Remembering, Det gamle Rådhus, Skælskør, Denmark
2016 Let me clear up a few things, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA
2014 Funeral for Minimalism, Tyler Patio, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Group
2019 In Place: Residency as Artistic Utopia, The Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, Red Wing, MN.
New Now II (January) InLiquid Gallery, Philadelphia PA. “River Path Composition,” porcelain tile mosaic.
2018 CFEVA’S Holiday Pop Up, CFEVA, Philadelphia PA.
Art in the Open, Philadelphia PA
Seventy-Sixers, at NCECA, Standard Ceramics, Carnegie PA
Weighty Concerns: Both Artist and Mother, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia PA.
Dear Fleischer, The Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia PA.
Woodmere Annual: 77th Juried Exhibition, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia
Art in the Open, Philadelphia PA. Exploring the Schuylkill River Trail through embroidery and clay.
Inside Out, The InLiquid Gallery, Philadelphia, PA.
2017 Idle Hands, Pilot+Projects, Philadelphia, PA
2016 Outside In, Women's Caucus for Art at Scotts Mills Studios, Philadelphia, PA
Don't Take This the Wrong Way, Ice Box Project Space, Philadelphia, PA
2015 Common Inconsistencies, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA Juror: John Schlesinger
Push Block, Tyler Atrium Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Marge Brown Kalodner Graduate Student Exhibition, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
2014 First Year Show, Walm Gallery, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Our Community, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
Current Climate, Crane Gallery 105, Philadelphia, PA
2013 Small Favors VIII, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
2012 Our Community, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
Other
2019 “Who's Afraid of Chantal Ackerman?” Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT. Preliminary research and installation recreating Jeanne Dielman's apartment at 28 Rue du Commerce, Brussels.
2017 POST East, Crane Old School, Philadelphia, PA
2016 POST East, Crane Old School, Philadelphia, PA
2015 First Year Review, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA
2013 POST East, Crane Old School, Philadelphia, PA
