Presence: Six Sculptors
Presence: Six Sculptors - came together on the advent of Nancy Bowen’s retirement, commemorating her twenty-three years dedicated to teaching Sculpture at Purchase College. In a tribute to her pedagogical journey, Bowen elected to showcase her work alongside six sculptors, all women, each of whom overlap teaching careers with Bowen and embody distinct sculptural approaches. This assembly not only honors Bowen but also mirrors the educational philosophy of Purchase College, which eschews a singular dogma in art creation in favor of nurturing individual artistic voices. Purchase Art + Design faculty is there to help the students find their own path and make the most of it.
Nancy Bowen’s contribution draws from a family narrative entwined with Colonial American history; Nancy Davidson’s inflatable sculptures critique the clichés associated with women in the Wild West. Donna Dennis’s work pays homage to vernacular architecture, invoking a sense of nostalgia through its monumental form. Kate Gilmore’s performance piece addresses contemporary anxieties and frustrations, reflecting the zeitgeist of our turbulent era. Rachel Owens scans and casts fossils of the world’s oldest trees from upstate New York, bridging past and present. Lastly, Lachell Workman’s projection installation investigates how concepts surrounding memorials may reclaim and amplify the stories that have been systematically excluded.
Collectively, these contributions underscore the breadth and depth of contemporary sculpture as fostered by Purchase College, showcasing the discipline’s diversity and the complexity of its expression.
Nancy Bowen
Bowen, retiring as a Professor of Sculpture at Purchase this spring, will be showcasing her series of sculptures titled “Spectral Evidence” in an upcoming group show. These 20 pieces, which she worked on in 2021, delve into the theme of witches. Each sculpture, rendered in monochromatic tones, symbolizes “twenty gravestones facing off their accuser while he bears the burden of their deaths.”
“Spectral Evidence” draws inspiration from a form of evidence prevalent during the Salem Witch Trials, grounded in dreams and visions. Bowen’s interpretation deconstructs Early American gravestone imagery, transforming the traditional “death head” motif into winged creatures with feet trapped in amorphously shaped stones. Initially conceived as gravestones honoring the wrongfully killed, these sculptures evolved into symbols resonating with contemporary issues, such as the collective mourning for lives lost to COVID-19, gun violence, and other senseless tragedies.
Bowen has had exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe including the Lesley Heller Gallery in NYC, Annina Nosei Gallery in NYC, Galerie Farideh Cadot in Paris, the Betsy Rosenfield gallery in Chicago, and the James Gallery in Houston. Her work has been reviewed widely in such journals as Art in America, Artforum, Glass Magazine, Sculpture Magazine and a host of newspapers.
She has won awards from the Anonymous was a Woman Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, The Jentel Foundation, the European Ceramic Work Center and the Brown Foundation Fellowship at the Dora Maar House and the European Ceramic Work Center among others. She attended Stanford University, received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from Hunter College (CUNY). She has taught at at Bard College, Sarah Lawrence College, and Columbia University, and Purchase College, S.U.N.Y. She maintains a studio in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
If you wish to delve deeper into Bowen’s work, please visit the provided link: here
SPECTRAL EVIDENCE, 2021
Ceramic, paper pulp and pigments and mixed media. Dimensions variable. These are two of the 20 pieces that are part of her witch themed sculpture series. Stands roughly 2 feet high.
Nancy Davidson
Nancy Davidson is a Professor Emerita of Art + Design at Purchase College. Davidson is an interdisciplinary artist renowned for her innovative sculptural works and installations that explore interconnectedness of form and space. Through her playful and thought-provoking creations, Davidson invites viewers into a realm where scale and texture challenge perceptions.
Davidson’s artistic journey is marked by a fascination with American icons and gender dynamics. Supported by a Creative Capital Grant in 2005, she embarked on an exploration of the myth and reality of the cowgirl archetype. Renowned for her larger-than-life inflatable sculptures, Davidson infuses her works with humor and satire, offering a whimsical take on Western legendry.
In her latest exhibition, Davidson revisits her iconic piece “Dustup,” transforming it into “Dustdown” while maintaining her irreverent approach. These colossal inflatables, suspended in midair, blend playfulness with grandeur, underscoring America’s penchant for the exaggerated. Davidson’s career spans decades, with honors that include the Guggenheim Fellowship (2014): Pollock Krasner Foundation (2001, 2015): Creative Capital (2005): Anonymous Was a Woman Award (1997): Yaddo Residency (1980,2003): Massachusetts Council of Arts, Individual Artists Fellowship (1981), NEA (1979). Davidson’s work has been reviewed in the New York Times, Art in America, Artforum, the Village Voice, the Brooklyn Rail, Der Spiegel and Art/Text.
For further insights into Davidson’s creative vision, please follow the provided link.
Dustdown, 2012,
x 20 feet, x 16 feet
Vinyl coated nylon, rope, leather, blowers, sandbags, sawdust
Donna Dennis
Donna Dennis, Professor Emerita of Art+Design at Purchase College, is celebrated for her architectural-inspired installations. Her iconic piece, “Tunnel Tower,” traveled to Italy as part of the Venice Biennale 1982, now a part of the Neuberger Museum’s permanent collection. Now, after a meticulous restoration under Dennis’s supervision featured here in “Presence: Six Sculptors.”
Inspired by a small building near the Holland Tunnel, “Tunnel Tower” embodies fantasy and secrecy, evoking notions of fortitude and vulnerability. Dennis’s use of scaffolding and neon elements adds layers of symbolism, inviting viewers into a realm where private fantasies intersect with public spaces.
A trailblazer in her field, Dennis, alongside other pioneering women, reshaped the boundaries between sculpture and architecture in the 1970s. Her work continues to captivate audiences, offering a glimpse into the intersection of personal narratives and public spaces.
Donna Dennis’s work is in prominent collections including the Brooklyn Museum, the Cleveland Art Museum, the Microsoft Collection, the Walker Art Center, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst in Aachen, Germany, the Indianapolis Museum, the San Diego Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Neuberger Museum, and the Martin Z. Margulies Collection. Permanent public art commissions are located at John F. Kennedy Airport, P.S. 234, Queens College, and at the Wonderland MBTA Station in Boston. Grants and awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, several National Endowment Fellowships, and Pollock-Krasner Foundation grants.
In recent years she received the prestigious Artists’ Legacy Foundation Award, the Merit Award in Sculpture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Anonymous Was a Woman Award. She was elected to the National Academy of Design in 2010. She lives and works in Germantown, New York.
To explore Dennis’s artistic legacy further, please click on the provided: click here.
"Tunnel Tower"1979-80,
Acrylic and enamel on wood and Masonite, with glass, metal, and fluorescent, neon and incandescent light, 11'6" x 4'7" x 5'
Kate Gilmore
*Performers will make additional, unscheduled appearances throughout exhibition.
Kate Gilmore (b.1975) is a New York based artist working in performance, sculpture, installation, and video. Gilmore has participated in the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Moscow Biennial, Russia; PS1 Greater New York, MoMA/PS1, New York. Selected solo exhibitions include The Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY; The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; MoCA Cleveland, Ohio; Public Art Fund, New York, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati. She has been the recipient of several international awards and honors such as the Guggenheim Fellowship, Anonymous Was A Woman, Art Prize Grand Jury Award, Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award, the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance, and New York Foundation for The Arts Fellowship. Her work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; Rose Art Museum, Waltham, Massachusetts; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis; and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois. Gilmore is a Professor of Art at Purchase College, SUNY, Purchase, NY.
Dimensions variable, materials - wood, paint, miscellaneous. This photo is from a previous installation "Through the Claw," performed in 2011.
Rachel Owens
Rachel Owens, currently engaged in her project “Future Fossils,” delves into a profound geological narrative that connects ancient trees to our existence. Since Spring 2023, she has collaborated with the NY State Museum in Albany, NY, as a visiting researcher in the Paleontology Department. Her endeavor involves 3D scanning the museum’s collection of fossilized remains from what is believed to be the world’s oldest known forest.
Dating back 400 million years to the Devonian period, a cluster of Eospermatopteris trees once thrived along the Catskill Sea, now known as the Catskill Mountains. This epoch marked the onset of Earth’s greening, coinciding with significant changes in CO2 levels that facilitated terrestrial life. Owens’ project serves a dual purpose: assisting the museum in creating a digital database of specimens while crafting sculptures and installations that narrate a profound geological tale intrinsic to our existence.
In the process of creating the works showcased in this exhibition, Owens incorporates wax casts of parts of her own body onto the scanned objects. These additions—ears, feet, fingers, and breasts—emerge from the fossils, imbuing them with a celestial glow reminiscent of stained glass. Owens explains that these sculptures elevate the rocks to the status of our plant ancestors, symbolizing the pivotal moment when the animal kingdom transitioned from water to land.
Owens’ artistic journey spans exhibitions across the US and internationally, including prestigious venues such as The X Krasnoyarsk Biennial, Franco Soffiantino Contemporary, and The New Museum Window, among others. Her solo museum project, “The Hypogean Tip,” commissioned by The Housatonic Museum of Art in Bridgeport, CT, traveled to The Sugarhill Museum in NYC. Recognized by prominent publications and foundations, Owens’ work resonates with audiences worldwide, prompting reflection on humanity’s place in Earth’s history.
In addition to her artistic pursuits, Owens has been a valued member of the Purchase College - Sculpture Department since 2007.
To explore more about Rachel Owens’ compelling body of work, please click on the provided link: click here.
Ms Gilboa, 2023,
2 2 x 24 x 28
Cast, broken bottle glass and resin
Lachell Workman
Lachell Workman, an interdisciplinary artist based in New York, holds an MFA from SUNY Purchase College and a BFA in Photography from the University of Connecticut. Since Spring 2020, she has been an integral part of the Sculpture Department at Purchase College.
Workman’s artistic journey includes participation in the prestigious residency of Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine in 2015. Her recent exhibitions span globally, including notable showcases at the 10th Berlin Biennale, Dineo Seshee Bopape, and the Sculpture Center. Workman’s work has been featured in various esteemed venues and residency programs, underscoring her commitment to exploring diverse mediums and concepts.
For further insights into Lachell Workman’s captivating body of work, please refer to the provided link: here
The Scraps Are What We Have II, 2024,
8' x 4' x 6'
Installation,
Mixed Media
Gallery Walk - Through with Artists: March 13th at 1:30PM