Questionable Origins

New sculptural work from Eileen Braun

SCULPTURAL EXHIBITION Spruill Gallery – Atlanta, Georgia JANUARY 30 THROUGH APRIL 25, 2020

A R T I S T S TAT E M E N T My art mirrors natural forms with biomorphic dystopian edges. In the viewer’s mind the shapes are familiarly organic yet there is a tension as one struggles to comprehend the life cycle stage being anthropomorphized. Is it a nascent form or one going through the throes of death?

Or more simply: is it a cocoon or is it a skeleton?

My work is heavily influenced by my interest in nature and science. As a child, dinnertime conversations were a blend of my mother attending to our growing family’s needs and my father sharing updates from the scientific community – specifically his occupation: testing metallurgical samples – often by x-ray.

My current sculptural work in many ways blends these two; nurture and science or Mom and Dad. Movement, texture and complexity of form are integral as well. My hope is that when approaching the viewer will be drawn in by the relaxed floating form; then intrigued by ever-changing views of the work – seeing both through and around simultaneously. Texture, shadow and line add to the multidimensional cornucopia of delights. My materials are selected to guide your eyes across the surface and equally allow you to pause for contemplation.

The forms float like leaves on a river; animated by the light in the room and amplified by the point of view of the person standing in front of them. That makes it experiential. Because of its complex form the sculptures breath, ooze, and metamorphose. Shadows are cast by the animated gestural forms tethered to the wall. These shadows soften the hard lines and enlarge and deepen the work while expanding the power of the object. I have created the object, but the object has liberated itself and gone beyond.

I create biomorphic organisms that appear to be communicating human-like emotional needs (nurture). These newly formed organisms represent a new questionable species conjured in my studio by cross-breeding insects, birds, fish and vegetation.

Their skeletal hulls revealing germ, the pending emergence of new life from chrysalis. The ectoplasm now peeling away from the dystopian structure, miraculously composed of metal, revealed (x-rays).

It has often been said that sculptors are born and not made.

Eileen Braun is a born sculptor. Much like her earlier work in ceramics, her more recent mixed-media sculptures reveal her ability to think in three dimensions, to give an idea plastic form. This is a true gift, innate and – for her – inseparable from the creative process.

THOMAS DEANS Thomas Deans Fine Art Atlanta, Georgia

Alexx, 2020.

individual hanging sculptures vary in size

Delicate and heavy. Organic and other-worldly.

This is the new work of Eileen Braun.

A seemingly contradictory description that leads to a fascinating visual discovery. On first impression the sculptures defy gravity with their metal-like forms floating in space, but with closer inspection one can see the texturing from Braun’s trompe l’oeil treatment of paint and wax that begins the realization that things are not as they first seemed.

The work is mesmerizing and delightful; filling the space around you while at the same time allowing you to look through it and beyond, granting access to this new environment of Braun’s own creation.

JENNIFER PRICE Gallery Director, Spruill Gallery Atlanta, Georgia Relax, 2019.

66"h x 40"w x 17"d

Set Free, 2017.

New Life Awakening, 2019.

Cosmos 1, 2019.

Untitled, 2018.

Pod, 2019.

Mollusk, 2019.

Untitled, 2018.

Beached, 2017.

26"h x 15"w x 13"d

19"h x 19"w x 11"d

15"h x 14"w x 7"d

22"h x 11"w x 11"d

14"h x 15"w x 10"d

19”h x 17”w x 11”d

14"h x 18"w x 14"d

12”h x 7”w x 8”d

Caught, 2020.

Untitled, 2018.

60"h x 48"w x 18"d

Swoosh, 2018.

35"h x 37"w x 23"d

40"h x 24"w x 14"d

Afloat, 2017.

32"h x 21"w x 15"d

Fertile, 2019.

51"h x 32"w x 20"d

Canopy, 2020.

installation approximately 35 units

Dimensions:

individual hanging sculptures vary in size

Materials:

rattan reed, cotton string, fabric, adhesive, encaustic wax, composed metallic patina, dressmakers pattern tissue.

Matriarch, Three large figures, 2020.

Dimensions:

tall – approximately 85" high, base 16" medium – approximately 72" high, base 16" small – approximately 62" high, base 16"

Materials:

encaustic wax, rattan reed, fabric, cotton string, adhesive, composed metallic patina, dressmakers pattern tissue.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY Born in Boston, Massachusetts Eileen Braun has lived and worked in Atlanta, Georgia since 2004. Her unique visual arts voice was developed primarily through intensive exploration and discovery in her home studio. Ms. Braun notes that “It is exciting when a materials boundaries are an unknown. Unsupervised in my studio I am free to experiment and push my materials, then use my skills of observation to repeat the resulting effects.”

Ms Braun received a BA in Sculpture and Art Education from Indiana University. Her broad professional experience includes Executive Director for Croton Cortlandt Center for the Arts in New York, Art Educator (in Cook County Illinois) and Manager at Spertus Museum in Chicago. She is nationally recognized for her ceramic sculpture.

Her work has appeared in numerous private and corporate exhibitions including the Ogden Museum of Southern Art (LA), San Angelo Museum of Art (TX), MESA Contemporary Arts Museum (AZ), Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (TX), American Museum of Ceramic Art (CA), and Museum of Fine Arts Boston (MA). In 2014 and 2015 she received the NICHE Award. Her teapots are in the Kamm, Sara and Bill Morgan and Arthur Goldberg collections as well as featured in Lark Books 500 Teapots II. She has participated in two Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport exhibitions Ceramix: Georgia’s Creative Claymakers (2015-16), E-Merge: Contemporary Atlanta Artists (2013-14), and Georgia Artists Selecting Artists (2013) MOCA GA. Ms Braun is a Hambidge Fellow, Ambassador for North Central Illinois College – Self Employment in the Arts program, as well as a lifelong mentor in the arts.

Fragment, 2018.

15"h x 7"w x 7"d

Nesting Instinct II, 2017.

14"h x 14"w x 14"d

EileenBraun.art The Questionable Origins sculptures were first exhibited at Spruill Gallery – Atlanta, Georgia JANUARY 30 – APRIL 25, 2020.

C O V E R I M A G E : Chrysalis, 2017. 45"h x 9"w x 8"d P H O T O G R A P H Y : ING Photography G R A P H I C D E S I G N : Lori L. Jenkins