KATHLEEN STUDEBAKER: FantasyMechanics: Metal Sculpture for the Unknown Future

October 15 - December 31, 2024

Kathleen Studebaker is the winner of this years' Dina Wind Art Foundation award at the Bridgette Mayer Gallery Benefit Exhibition and a multi-media sculptor focusing on wood, metal, cast plastic and a variety of other materials. She is a fabricator and all-around tinkerer, and has developed her broad knowledge-base of material processes through work in many different shops (from all-glass furniture and elaborate corporate trophies, to traditional wood working and academia).

She has a great love of detailed fabrication and problem-solving, and makes every element of each of her works by hand (no CNC machines, lasers, etc). Her work often references the far-flung future, or perhaps alternate realities, and is inspired by astronomy, narrative fantasy, and the intersection of digital technology with mechanical function.
AstroObject [2e.ii2], 2024, Bronze, Brass, Steel, Aluminum, Walnut 12.5 x 7 x 6”

Sometimes the pieces I create tell a story, more often they exist inside the context of one. I consume narrative fantasy voraciously and am also interested in astronomy; our seemingly infinite universe and all its mysteries. Learning about the life-cycle of stars, or looking at the incredible new images produced by orbiting satellites, reminds me of how small I am: how narrow my view, how finite my nature. - Kathleen Studebaker
- AstroObject [2c-o.ii2], 2024, Copper, Bronze, Brass, Steel, Aluminum, Walnut 6.75” x 7” x 8”
AstroObject [1d.o2], 2023, Copper, Steel, Aluminum, Walnut 6.5” x 5” x 5”

The AstroObjects are fantastical gadgets aimed at sparking the viewer’s imagination; they are machines of unknown purpose. Aesthetically, they are inspired by antique celestial navigation tools and laboratory equipment; formally, they echo the building blocks of the universe: from atomic structure to solar systems.
- Artworks
  AstroObject [1d.x1]
  2023, Copper, Bronze, Brass, Steel, Aluminum, Walnut 5.75” x 5.5” x 3.5”
  Every element of each sculpture is made by hand (there are no found objects in this work) using bandsaws, sanders, Dremel tools and many other tools as needed.
- AstroObject [3c.ii0], 2024, Copper, Bronze, Brass, Steel, Aluminum, Walnut, 14.5” x 9.25” x 6”
- AstroObject [1e.o1], 2023, Copper, Bronze, Brass, Steel, Aluminum, Walnut, 5” x 2.5” x 3”
- AstroObject [2a.x0], 2023, Copper, Bronze, Brass, Steel, Aluminum, Walnut, 7.25” x 8” x 7.5”
- Schematic Drawing for AstroObject [2a.x0]
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This piece, AstroObject [2f.ii1], won the Dina Wind Art Foundation award at this summer’s Bridgette Mayer Gallery Benefit ~
AstroObject [1e.x0], 2023, Bronze, Brass, Steel, Aluminum, Walnut, 7.25” x 5” x 2.5”

Dina Wind made sculpture that was both modern and traditional. She was joyfully bucking standard gender norms at a time when it was considerably more difficult than it is now (I can only imagine how troublesome it must've been for her to find welding gear that fit), working in processes and with materials that were primarily the property of men.
- Studebaker working in her Philadelphia studio ~
AstroObject [2b.x0], 2022, Copper, Bronze, Brass, Steel, Aluminum, Cast iron, Walnut, 9” x 4.75” x 6.5”

I never met Dina, but I feel like I know a lot about her day-to-day experience of life nonetheless. She was also no doubt cognizant of (though clearly undaunted by) the ceaseless messaging, both societal and physical, telling her that she was in the wrong field; that this world of welding and metalwork was not meant for her. Despite those obstacles, Dina was a hands-on maker, a fabricator; and, not to put too fine a point on it: a total badass
I like to think of myself as a part of that tradition as well. The fact that I was able to enter into this field w/o a second thought for my gender, or for what the world expected of me, is due in no small part to women like Dina, and to the many visionary female artists, stretching back through art history, who no doubt inspired her.
Purple[mini]Circuit, Cast resin, 2022, Purple heart, aluminum 11.5” x 5” x 5”

The SeedCircuitry series addresses the idea of preservation, and explores the reproduction of lost things through digital means. With this work, I imagine a future full of people surrounded by technology far surpassing anything we have today, but nonetheless longing for the past; trying endlessly to recapture something that was lost so long ago that it exists now only as a kind of myth.
The various woods highlighted are shown in their natural state, and I was initially inspired by my desire to preserve these gorgeous natural colors, which are normally faded by UV light and oxidation very quickly.
SeedCircuit [1], 2022, Yellowheart, Osage Orange, Paduak, Blood wood, Purpleheart, Cast resin, Aluminum, Light, 42” x 40” x 7.5”

The bits of wood contained within the cubes are the last remaining samples of a lost age. The SeedCircuit is chipping away at the genetic sequence of the samples, attempting to discover, and perhaps recreate, whatever unknown organisms they came from.
- SeedCircuit [1] Yellowheart, 2022, Osage Orange, Paduak, Blood wood, Purpleheart, Cast resin, Aluminum, Light, 42” x 40” x 7.5”
This year, Studebaker's piece was selected for The Woodmere Annual: 82nd Juried Exhibition, a show presenting the work of Philadelphia’s contemporary artists.

Each year, a different juror prepares a call for artists, soliciting submissions related to a distinct theme or idea. This year’s juror, Joanne Grüne-Yanoff invited makers to submit works that reflect on the question: What is Belonging?
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In progress drawings of SeedCircuit [1]
In conjunction with the Viewing Room, please join us at the in-person reception to meet with Kathleen, view her work, and shop her one-of-a-kind jewelry in time for the holidays:

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

6:00 - 8:00pm

1606 S. 8th Street

Philadelphia, PA

RSVP HERE

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