Introduction

Spanning clay, steel and textile, this exhibition traces the connections between these artists as they investigate heritage, the body, and memory. Working in abstraction while maintaining concrete ties to the physical world, Jiménez and Troxell contemplate and reclaim their own ancestry, as well as that of their medium. Each artist distinctively approaches these practices laden with histories of artistry, labor, and utility. The self is recast into clay or textile, allowing personal experience to emerge through new forms ripe for ubiquitous understanding.

Carolina Jiménez (b. California, 1991) uses the language of abstract expressionism to create monumental woven paintings in which the self is understood both in their narrative conception as well as the visibility of labor in their creation. Jiménez unites her own recollections–a sense of belonging at a fruit stand or the hues of trees from a family home– with material memory. The process of naturally dying silk and linen yarns in her studio intimates Jiménez with the conventions of her craft in order to diverge from tradition. Integrating these yarns with their commercially produced counterparts in various states of tension and repose, she examines the larger history of her craft in its utility and artistry. By harnessing this materiality, Jiménez creates juxtapositions that lay bare her labor, mirroring that of generations of artisans. Embracing various contradictions in her work, Jiménez ultimately allows the viewer to empathize with, and synthesize, a new experience. She captures sensations both eternal and fleeting, creating an impression of the past through an experience in the present.

Grace Sachi Troxell (b. Illinois, 1991) similarly works with multiple modes of representation, creating large-scale sculptures in ceramic and steel. Fusing manufactured and organic materials, the artist creates a fraught sense of entanglement as vegetal and disembodied forms morph into one. Troxell uses clay as a vehicle to explore her mixed Japanese, Irish and German ancestry; the medium itself becoming a form of generational memory. She casts fragments of her family members’ bodies—her father’s hands, her aunt’s face, her mother’s breast—and pairs them with organic forms, examining the symbiosis of our bodies and the earth. Like Jiménez, she touches on the functional history of her medium, bringing vessel-like forms to a human scale. Referencing abject aesthetics, Troxell’s teratological sculptures put the body on display, acting as figures themselves and embodying the narrative that their amalgam of parts represent.

Both Jiménez and Troxell, entrenched within historied crafts, acknowledge traditional canons while emerging anew. Together, these idiosyncratic works address the ways in which the body holds ancestral memory, prompting a meditation on physicality, personal narrative, and broader histories.