You Become the Changer

Now On View

 Thomas VanDyke Gallery is pleased to present You Become the Changer, a group show of sculptural work investigating the responsibility of each individual to control their own destiny and be the author of their own story. Seeing change as an opportunity for innovation and organic growth involves overcoming challenges, some of which we create for ourselves. Recognition that everything in the universe is in motion can give rise to acceptance and inspire action. This is the confluence of art and science: that creation’s symmetrical image is the force that drives creation itself. In this sense, time acts as an infinite mirror of our universe, where everything that happens is an inversion of what came before it. We can choose to see this as a chance for us to effect our own future by making it the opposite of our past.

The show features work by Sophie Kahn, Caleb Nussear, and Brian Walters and is the first group exhibition being shown in the outdoor sculpture garden.

Artists

Caleb Nussear earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Religion from Bard College at Simon’s Rock and an M.A. in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago. His artwork explores the intersection of intricate geometric forms, concepts from physics and mathematics related to higher dimensions, and the natural landscape as it exists. He emphasizes the tactile and sensual qualities of line drawing. Nussear employs various media in his work, including drawing, sculpture, photography, and installation. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

The sculptures in this exhibition were conceived using reflection of light and the surrounding landscape. The viewer plays an active role, as does the weather, time of day, and lighting conditions. The tiled mirrored class surface reflects both the environment and viewer simultaneously - the viewer's body generating a field of partially reflected images, which change as she circumnavigates the field of sculpture. This fractured image returned to the viewer presents a peaceful obliteration of the ego or the subjective self, which works best out in nature, in a landscape. The mirrored surface is a Penrose tiling - an aperiodic infinite matrix. Nussear explains, "The tiling is endlessly fascinating, yet is governed by very strict rules. These rules impose choices about the perimeter of the structure that am making. The crude processes of cold-bending and riveting the lead and zinc sheet manually counteract the abstract strictness of the pattern. Nussear's work utilizes a range of materials, among them glass, lead, zinc and stainless steel. He is interested in the unique properties presented by each material; the malleability of sheet lead that has a skin-like quality or the cool colored undertone of zinc that intensifies during oxidation.

Sophie Kahn is a digital artist and sculptor, whose work addresses technology’s failure to capture the unstable human body. She grew up in Melbourne, Australia, and now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She earned a BA (Hons) in Fine Art/History of Art at Goldsmiths College, University of London; a Graduate Certificate in Spatial Information Architecture from RMIT University, Melbourne; and an MFA in Art and Technology Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Sophie Kahn’s work investigates the complexity, and the poetics, of capturing the body in the digital age. She uses a 3D laser scanner to create sculptures, prints, video and digital artworks. This scanner was never designed to capture the human body in motion--when confronted with a moving form, the machine receives conflicting spatial coordinates and generates incomplete images. Kahn converts this deliberately damaged data into the form of prints, videos and hand-painted, 3D printed sculptures. Her fragmented forms draw inspiration from funereal and memorial sculpture, and can read as faux-historical forgeries and/or contemporary relics.

The psychological underpinnings of Kahn’s work are based upon the artist’s personal history of chronic illness and disability. Looking through the lens of medical history, Kahn examines significant moments (e.g. the ‘invention’ of hysteria at the Salpetriere asylum) where older technologies like photography similarly failed to capture the female-identified body and its attendant madnesses. For her sculpture and print series Machines for Suffering, Kahn 3D scanned dancers as they re-enacted the supposed choreography of an attack of hysteria. These works suggest an unstable, monumental, body-as-architecture, under continuous construction -- or perhaps demolition.

Kahn looks to her early training as a photographer to amplify the eeriness of creating digital duplications of the human body within the space of the virtual. Her most recent series, The Divers, was created with Butoh performers at Pioneer Works, and features weightless body/avatars rendered in a 3D digital void. It echoes the monochrome transparency of Victorian spirit photography, and the vernacular language of tombstones. These images speak to the inherent deathliness of 3D replications of the digital body, and suggest the separation of body and digital avatar as an almost religious operation.

In all her works, the human body is de-materialized, separated from the physical, and then re-materialized into a vastly altered form. Like many of her contemporaries who also use 3D software and fabrication tools ‘against the grain’, Kahn is interested in situating these modes of seeing within a critical context. Subsequently, the artist challenges standard viewpoints by creating her own subjective, embodied and very human way of seeing through a technological lens.

Brian Walters is a Connecticut based artist who began his career as a sculptor through experience working with cutting and shaping large pieces of metal. He works with found objects and salvaged metals at his workshop. Walters has shown his work throughout America and Europe. Walters work is in numerous private and corporate collections. In 2020 Walters received an "Arts Hero" award for his storefront project from the State of Connecticut.

Minami Yoshida (b. 1993) is a Japanese artist focused on sculpture and the human form. Born in Sapporo, Japan, she grew up with a penchant for art and a talent for creativity.  She channels a distinctive style informed by the ancient Jomon Period and the vibrant contemporary culture of Japan. Her sculptures, reminiscent of the clay figures from the Jomon era, are characterized by their charming simplicity, evoking a sense of quiet solitude infused with inner beauty and spiritual depth.

During her childhood marked by frequent illness, Yoshida found solace in introspection, spending much of her time alone crafting drawings and artworks. Raised in northern Japan, she developed an affinity for mascots and anime characters, which provided her with comfort and inspiration. These early encounters with popular culture would later shape her artistic sensibilities. She loved creating art both in school and in her free time, and became more and more focused on her artistry as her focus of study.

Inspired by the natural forms and beauty of Jomon clay figures, Yoshida embarked on a journey to explore the essence of life and creativity. Her relocation to Tokyo for studies further fueled her artistic pursuits, prompting a rediscovery of the intrinsic connection between clay and childhood memories. This profound reawakening motivated her to create sculptures that echo the timeless essence of existence.

In 2009, at age 16, she had her first solo exhibition in Sapporo, and she has since shown her artwork all over Japan. In 2012 she began her undergraduate study at Tokyo Zokei University, graduating in 2016 with a degree in fine art with a focus on sculpture.  She lives and works now in Niseko Hokkaido, Japan.

One of Yoshida's recent works, "Kimono Girl," exemplifies her fusion of contemporary aesthetics with ancient symbolism. Through delicate integration of kimono and body parts, she imbues her creations with a transcendent presence, reminiscent of the innocence and benevolence embodied by Jomon clay dolls.

Yoshida's artistic vision serves as a bridge between Japan's rich cultural heritage and its modern manifestations. Her works captivate audiences, transcending temporal and spatial boundaries, while her dedication to sculpting rustic beauty continues to resonate with diverse viewers.