LES Art Week | Drew Shiflett: Sculptural Works 1984–2006

Lower East Side Art Week

Drew Shiflett: Sculptural Works 1984–2006
October 17–21, 2018
Opening Reception: Wednesday, October 17, 5–8pm
Meet the Artist and Exhibition Walk-Through: Saturday, October 20, 2–3pm

Lesley Heller Gallery is thrilled to present a special one-week exhibition—on the occasion of the inaugural Lower East Side Art Week—of early sculptural works by Drew Shiflett, spanning her career from 1984-2006. The exhibition is comprised of pieces that anticipate—in technique and methodology—her current studio practice.

Shiflett examines surface, structure, and texture in complex works that are defined by process and material. The pieces are constructed using her own organic method of building: a slow, intimate, and labor-intensive additive sculptural technique, which draws the viewer deep into the architecture of the piece. Shiflett uses a range of materials including handmade paper, polyester stuffing, Styrofoam, cheesecloth, wood, metal scrap, glue, and plaster. These materials—which were integral to her earlier bodies of work—show the beginnings and inspiration for her current focus on paper, canvas, and the grid.

The artist’s current work—which she creates by cutting and shredding handmade paper and canvas into thin strips before gluing, layering and weaving the materials into intricate and intuitive grids—can find its origins in the details of these early sculptures. As with her recent work, the earlier sculptural pieces on view in this exhibition highlight Shiflett’s instinctive sense of meditation. Each cumulative detail of the work serves as a physical gesture on its surface, and also a notation for marking a vision in and apart from the realm of time. Viewers are drawn into the archeology of the works’ surface, piecing together marks and materials to form their own understanding of the process.

This will be the artist’s 5th solo exhibition with the gallery.

Drew Shiflett has had solo exhibitions at White Columns; The InterArt Center; Fashion Moda; Guild Hall Museum; The Drawing Room; and Islip Art Museum. Her work has also been shown nationally and internationally at institutions including The Drawing Center (New York, NY), Weatherspoon Art Museum (Greensboro, NC), Sculpture Center (New York, NY), Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, (Louisville, KY), A&A Gallery, Yale University School of Art (New Haven, CT), Baltimore Museum of Art, and Kunststiftung K52 (Berlin, Germany).  

Shiflett’s work has been highlighted in numerous publications including The New York Times, Art In America, The Wall Street Journal, and the Huffington Post. She is the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts award in printmaking/drawing/book arts and in sculpture; a Mid Atlantic/NEA Regional Visual Arts Fellowship award in sculpture; and a Guggenheim Fellowship award in fine arts. She lives and works in New York City.

More info on the LES Art Week  can be found at https://www.lesartweek.com/ .