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BECCA LOWRY

March 2019

When I first started making these shields, there were some specific worries on my mind.  I had a sense, as delusional as it was, that each piece I made would serve as protection for a particular individual.  This was in the context of a steady accretion of news coverage about unarmed black children, men, women being shot or otherwise brutalized, usually by police, for doing this or that normal thing that white people seem to be allowed to do but that people of color somehow look suspicious doing in this, our, America. 

In this context, my sculptures were becoming more unambiguously shield-like in form and at the same time I was feeling a growing anxiety about the absurd futility of my occupation.  I wrote at the time “If these shields actually worked - if, like Spiderman’s suit, they fused to the body of the vulnerable and awakened superhuman strength and courage, - if there were actually something that I could build to give a kid wings, to amplify a small voice, then I would be obliged, and you would be obliged, to stop whatever it is we’re doing right now and mass-produce these things.”

But they don’t work.  And that bothers me.

That was before this particular political climate, before this latest wave of greed, and wretchedness, and unveiled racism rolled in; before this current backlash, the calculated and systematic dismantling of the very few things left that seemed even remotely good or decent in the world.  

And here I am, still making these things. They’re getting bigger, more and more elaborate, more delicate, and yet somehow no more effective at protecting good people from bad things.  I keep thinking there must be _something_ I can build.

These days I’m thinking more and more about the earth, about running out of time, about all that we stand to lose.  And these thoughts are showing up in the work.  There are now petals and branches emerging, creature-like limbs and riverbeds, stretched skin over ribcages or perhaps the skin-like webbing between the veins of a leaf.  Maybe I’m trying to make an army of earth avengers or creature-shaped prayers. Whatever it is that I’m building, it is clearly still an elaborate fantasy, one in which I am still hiding in my studio, still thinking I am the forger of a stockpile of armor fit for an uprising.

Education
2002 Smith College, Bachelor of Arts in Economics, Certificate in African Studies Gallery Affiliations
 

Solo and two-person exhibitions

2017 The Peddie School, Hightstown, NJ, Becca Lowry Shields
2016 VOLTA NY 2016, Fred Giampietro Gallery, New York, NY
2016 Fred Giampietro Gallery, New Haven, CT, Becca Lowry, Tom Burckhardt

2014 Fred Giampietro Gallery, New Haven, CT, Be me I’ll be you

 

Selected group exhibitions

2018 Klowden Mann, Los Angeles, CA, Surface of a Sphere
2018 ODETTA Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, flatfiles alongside Nancy Baker, No Regrets
2017 Flinn Gallery, Greenwich, CT, Venus Fly (with Alyse Rosner and Lauren Mabry)
2017 Fred Giampietro Gallery, New Haven, CT, Becca Lowry, Jane Miller & Elana Herzog 2016 Governor’s Island, NY, The

         Tide is High
2016 Silvermine Arts Center, New Canaan, CT, 66th Art of the Northeast
2015 David Findlay Jr. Gallery, New York, NY, Selections
2015 David Findlay Jr. Gallery, New York, NY, Summer Set
2015 Art Miami New York, David Findlay Jr. Gallery, New York, NY
2015 Select Fair, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, New York, NY
2015 Improvised Showboat #3, Underdonk Studio, Brooklyn, NY
2015 Galarie Zürcher, New York, NY, Salon Zürcher
2015 Fred Giampietro Gallery, Lucy Mink and Farrell Brickhouse, with works by Becca Lowry

 

Press

2017 New American Paintings Northeast Edition (128)
2016 GalleryLOG, video interview for VOLTA NY 2016, http://gallerylog.com/becca-lowry.html

2015 Marian, Oana Sanziana, Becca Lowry, Artforum, Jan 2015 issue, pp. 218-9
2015 Yeapanis, Stacia, OtherPeoplesPixels interview, http://blog.otherpeoplespixels.com, Aug 13

2014 Gorky’s Granddaughter studio visit interview, www.gorkysgranddaughter.com, April

 

Professional experience

2018 – MFA Mentor, New Hampshire Institute of Art
2015 – Statistical Programmer – University of California, Los Angeles

2006 – 2011 Research Coordinator - Innovations for Poverty Action, New Haven, CT
2005 – 2006 Development Worker - Tsholofelo Counseling Center, Botswana, Southern Africa

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