Artist Statement

My recent work imagines the complexities of human experience through weaving and embroidery. I am making connections between traumatic experiences such as illness and addiction, and the psychological and somatic responses engendered by these experiences. These works incorporate conscripted objects---wooden frames, bottle caps, vessels and ephemera---which I combine with various forms of weaving, sewing and quilting. These identifiable objects imbue my work with a sense of the common and the particular, a means of intersecting and highlighting what everyday events prove to be---highly regular but unique to the individual. In this process, I render the experience through a visual format, unifying the perceptual fragmentation which occurs into coherent art objects.

Artist Bio 

Jeffrey Nowlin is fiber artist and sculptor whose work investigates the social systems which impact daily life. His sculptures, created with found fabrics, fibers and reclaimed objects, address the complex networks of human life. Nowlin uses weaving, sewing, assemblage, and carving as he considers the interwoven themes of mental and physical illness, queerness, race, and economic precarity. He utilizes formal elements to facilitate conversation on how visual culture and critical theory contribute to contemporary art. Nowlin works in Boston as a teacher of foundation studio art and art education. He graduated with an MFA in 3D arts from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2019 and a BFA in Sculpture from Boston University in 2010. His work has been part of numerous Boston area group shows. He is a board member of the Piano Craft Gallery, where he exhibited his first solo exhibition in 2020.

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