More on: In the Studio

Tatu Tuominen is a Finnish artist whose work contextualizes archival material within discourses on ecology and built environment. A lecturer in printmaking at University of the Arts Helsinki, his practice includes printmaking, installation, collage, and moving image. Image: Can you tell me about your spiritual or religious background growing up? TT: It was shaped by…

Perri Lynch Howard uses painting, drawing, installation, and audio recording to investigate the passage of light, sound, and signal through the world’s most vulnerable ecosystems. She is represented by the Seattle Art Museum Gallery and ArtX Contemporary and is a volunteer field recording ambassador with Quiet Parks International. Image: What kind of religious and cultural…

When I am deeper into this process, the patterns begin to develop, and I can sense a power of realization or truth, like looking up at the stars and knowing you are nothing and everything all at once.

Marcus Clarke’s practice surveys the affective and symbolic language of American Christian subcultures through aversion and desire. His sculptures, prints, films, and installations engage with kitsch and camp, using tactics of the attention economy and of post-cynical sincerity to investigate how Christendom haunts culture. He was interviewed by Ellie Driscoll.   Image: Much of your…

The story of my family was spread out there every day. It is the gathering of family that drives the paintings, and my life.

Our ideals may seem broken and fractured, but they can be remade into a more beautiful reality. As the series progressed, the flowers gained back their glorious colors, celebrating the richness of life while showing the growing pains that come with finding a new form.

I strongly believe that for a Jew to make art, one has to be steeped in Jewish culture, as well as the contemporaneous culture of the West. I found my way into Judaism through the biblical story of the Exodus, especially the idea that each Jew identifies with this story as if they were present at Mount Sinai, because, as the Talmud explains, all Jewish souls, present and future, were at Mount Sinai to witness the divine.

While I was uninterested in the Bible stories of Sunday school, the quiet ritual of the service and the music appealed to me.

From conversations with viewers, I’ve learned that their experience depends a lot on the physical presence of my work, not just the size but also how it connects with its surroundings.

Viewing all things inseparable—creativity and God as one and the same—certainly influenced my abstract expression.