Photos Courtesy of Marianne McGrath
WHO: Marianne McGrath
WHAT: Art 1A Artist Talk
WHEN: Tuesday, November 22 from 12:30-1:45
HOW: Via Zoom https://ucsb.zoom.us/s/
Photo Courtesy of Marianne McGrath
Artist Bio:
Born into the fifth generation of a farming family, Marianne grew up in the strawberry fields and citrus orchards of Oxnard, California. Now mainly covered by suburban sprawl, the landscape of her childhood has been the focus of much of her recent work of installation and sculptural works that contemplate the fleeting nature of both memories and the landscapes in which they are formed.
Marianne received a BA in studio art and biology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and an MFA in studio art from the University of Texas at Austin. From 2008 — 2014, Marianne served as an Associate Professor of Art and Head of Ceramics and Sculpture departments at Temple College outside of Austin, TX. During that time, she served on the founding Executive Board of Directors for the Texas Sculpture Group (one of three branches of the International Sculpture Center), as curator and coordinator for the National Council on Ceramics Art’s (NCECA’s) international Projects Space Exhibition, and exhibited widely throughout the western US. In the fall of 2017, she joined the Faculty at CSU Channel Islands an Assistant Professor of Art and Head of Ceramics. Currently, Marianne is Chair of the Art and Performing Arts Department at CSUCI, and an Associate Professor of Art. She lives with her husband and daughter in Ventura, CA, and in 2022 has upcoming solo exhibitions in Austin, TX, Sacramento CA, and in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Photo Courtesy of Marianne McGrath
Artist Statement:
My work is a contemplation on material, process, and object metaphors that often juxtaposes the medium of clay with reclaimed materials to create works that speak of the recollection of both physical and conjured landscapes. Inspired by the lost landscape of my agrarian childhood home now covered by suburban sprawl, I strive for these works to be spaces and scenarios the viewer can physically or psychologically enter and inhabit, and perhaps consider how the spaces they’re able to recall from their own personal histories compare to the landscape that surrounds them today.
I employ the medium of clay in unconventional ways to accent both the metaphorical capacity of the material and the processes applied to it. I strive for my work to communicate a sense of memory, ephemerality, and loss which leave viewers questioning, perhaps considering the role they play in the landscapes that surround them and the memories of these spaces that carry within themselves.
