Good luck trying to define Phoebe Collings-James! The Jamaican British sculptor, ceramics expert, and sound musician works across mediums while exploring themes of desire, fear, sexuality, and violence.
Check out her talent at SculptureCenter, where In Practice: Phoebe Collings-James will be on display from Thursday, June 27 to Monday, Aug. 12.
This exhibition features a new series of sculptures in red and black clay that explore relationships between church orthodoxies, faith, heresy, society, and state. Expect eccentrically colored slips, glazes, and firing techniques along with imprints with fragments of texts.
All are invited to the opening reception on June 27 at 6 pm. The night features music by saxophone and guitar player Takiaya Reed with poet Heather Lynn Johnson on the lower level, starting at 8 pm.
SculptureCenter, which is dedicated to displaying work by emerging and international artists, was founded as The Clay Club in Brooklyn in 1928. Over the following years, the nonprofit changed its name, moved to a carriage house on West 8th Street in Manhattan, and relocated again to another carriage house on East 69th Street.
In 2001, SculptureCenter purchased its present site at 44-19 Purves St. Then, Maya Lin, the landscape artist who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., redesigned it. In 2014, the museum finished a major, multi-million-dollar renovation that added a bookshop, coatroom, seating area, and restrooms to 6,500 square feet of unique exhibition spaces on two levels. The site also has a 1,500-square-foot, enclosed courtyard for outdoor exhibitions.
Images: Phoebe Collings-James