Artist Statement:
My work is a form of visual exegesis based in the processes of traditional materials. Using symbols and characters borrowed from philosophy, theology, and literature I reconstitute them into images and sculptures. Through this process I am concerned with teasing out mythic narratives that hold resonance for a collective experience today. Biblical archetypes have been central to this project.
Wood carving is the technical foundation of my work, I carve both sculptures and matrices for printmaking. I choose to integrate traditional craft into my artistic expressions because it allows me to convey older ideas in an original form. This link between past and present is essential to the narrative substance of my work and the physical medium allows that convergence to happen physically as well as conceptually.
Recently I have been interested in using themes pulled from apocalyptic and messianic texts. In this moment in history it is the stories of redemption that hold my interest. I have learned to be patient, to collect things with potency as they cross my path, a story, an image, a symbol. I use this material and distill it towards the essence of my project, which is one of revelation.
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Eva Sturm-Gross is an artist and woodworker originally from Vermont. She graduated from Oberlin College with a degree in studio art and religion. Her prints and sculptures have been exhibited nationally including at the Wharton Esherick Museum in Pennsylvania, at the Kent Museum in Vermont and the Ohio Craft Museum in Columbus. She has been awarded multiple fellowships including Winter Resident at Penland School of Craft and Vermont Studio Center. She has worked as a studio technician at Haystack Mountain School and has been awarded scholarships and work studies to take classes at Penland school of Craft, John C. Campbell Folk School, and Lost Art Press. Eva is the art director of Gashmius Magazine and teaches wood carving at Makeville Studio and Bien Hecho Academy in Brooklyn.