Sam Van Aken
Sam Van Aken is a comptemprarary artist who takes a multidisciplinary approach, taking art beyond traditional means. With a focus on the natural and public realms, his work is known for themes of communication, botany, agriculture, climatology, and technology. Van Aken works are metaphors that centre the basis of narratives, sites of place making, and scientific research.
Sam Van Aken was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. His undergraduate education is in Art and Communication Theory. Van Aken received his MFA at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Between his degrees he lived in Poland where he worked with the Andy Warhol Foundation and the United States Information Agency as a dissident artist under the former communist regime. Van Aken…
Jeffrey Gibson
POWERFUL BECAUSE WE ARE DIFFERENT
relief print
2020
Gift of Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo and the Dorothea L. Leonhardt Foundation, INC
Gibson is known for his bright colors in his textile work, and indigenous handcrafts such as embroidering. His painting style is abstract, geometric, and often include text that he takes inspiration from. The materials he uses are laden with personal and cultural significance: beadwork, fabric, and fringe all add physical and symbolic weight to his works. His sculptures and paintings seamlessly coalesce traditional Native American craft with contemporary cultural production and references, forming works that speak to the experience of an individual subjectivity within the larger narrative defining contemporary globalization. This piece was commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art for the 2021 celebration.