I work with sculptural objects and installations where everyday items are radically transformed by cutting, burning, dipping, painting, and fusing. I reshape familiar objects into surreal caricatures that capture instances of tension, transition, and trauma. Assemblages that become physical "moments" capturing the tilt of an unstable circumstance. By using recognizable items, car parts, tools, toys, and sports equipment in unfamiliar ways, the works provoke consideration for how hidden forces shape and reshape our perceptions and actions. Growing up in Southeast Michigan in the 1980s, my work resonates with the industrial ethos of Metro Detroit, working class malaise, stages of masculinity, and the darker places of the Protestant Midwest.
In 2009, I presented a solo exhibition at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center entitled Morale Hazard, a comment on the crisis in the US auto industry, in which I suspended a 1965 Ford Mustang from the ceiling. I received international attention for my work XLounge, an artistic modification of a set of Eames Lounge chairs which were included in the 2008 SCOPE NY exhibition and won an award at 2010 Artprize in Grand Rapids, Michigan. My XLounge series was shown at the CDC’s David J. Sencer Museum in an exhibition entitled Consequential Matters considering obesity and contemporary aesthetics. In 2018 my work BIOID: A Bio-Marker Patent Generator was included in the Venice Architectural Biennale and travelled to V&A Museum for London Design Week and later the Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam.
Projects & Exhibitions2024 “…an Atlanta Biennial…” Temporary Art Center @ Fourth Ward Offices - Atlanta, GA
DEAL, solo exhibition, Whitespec - Atlanta, GA
“moment,” solo exhibition, Day & Night Projects - Atlanta, GA
Reckon - Temporary Studios - Atlanta, GA
2022-3 Temporary Studios/Art Papers • Atlanta Art Week
2021 Geoliminal Marginalia- collaborative art/urban agricultureproject, Freedom Park Conservancy, Atlanta, GA
2019 FLUX Projects - Sound Exhibition, collaborative installation - Atlanta, GA
DWELLING, Freedom Park, collaborative outdoor installation - Atlanta, GA
2018 16th Venice Architecture Biennale–WORK,BODY,LEISURE:Institute of Patent Infringement, Venice, Italy
V&A Museum – WORK, BODY, LEISURE: IOPI - London UK
Het Nieuwe Instituut – WORK, BODY, LEISURE: IOPI - Rotterdam NL
2017 Emissions Gallery - Virtual pop-up gallery in Poncey-Highland neighborhood - Atlanta, GA
Dave Eggers & Juan Martinez - The Spirit of the Animal is in the Wheels - collaborator. Atlanta, GA
2015 Flow Field(s) - Field Experiment - Hambidge Center/Goat Farm Art Center - Atlanta, GA
2012 Prairie Center of the Arts Residency - research and creative work on Asian carp invasion, Peoria IL
2011 CDC iFund project - Chromizone - collaborative project with SCAD, CDC & INq - Altanta, GA
2010 Four Fields, Environ Gallery, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
ArtPrize, UICA, Grand Rapids, MI
ART PAPERS Auction, Atlanta, GA
2009 Summer Falls, Whitespace, Atlanta, GA
Consequential Matters, Global Health Odyssey Museum, CDC, Atlanta, GA
Morale Hazard, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA
2008 Art+Space, Herman Miller National Design Center, Washington D.C.
SCOPE NY, International Contemporary Art Fair, Lincoln Center, NY
Myth of Difference, Gallery Project, Ann Arbor, MI
2007 Special Collection, Gensler, Washington D.C.
Useless, Project4Gallery, Washington D.C.
Function, Gallery Project, Ann Arbor, MI
2003 A Public Construction: the Bill of Rights - public art installation, Ann Arbor MI
2002 Faculty Exhibition, Concordia University, Ann Arbor, MI
2000 Midwestern Sculpture Exhibition, South Bend Regional Museum of Art, South Bend, IN
Lost & Found: Recycled Art, Ann Arbor Art Center - group exhibition
Art & Technology: Polk Competition Art Exhibition, Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center, MI
USE: Drawings and Sculptures, solo exhibition, Kreft Center Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI
The Side Show, 700 W. Michigan Ave -group exhibition, Ypsilanti, MI
1998 Midwestern Sculpture Exhibition, South Bend Regional Museum of Art, South Bend, IN
Articles/Reviews2024 ArtReview, “Talking Atlanta Art Week,” ArtReview, September 2024
2023 Mark Wentzel & Stuart Romm, interview, Lost in the Stacks, Ep.577:Creative Disorientation, October 2023
2022 ArtPapers “Art Papers x Temporary Studios: Oneness That Is, Too,” October, 2022
2019 Farshi, Aileen “Freedom Park’s Dwelling traces…, “ ArtsATL, March 2019
2015 Shaun Martin Architect “The Goat Farm Arts Center,” feature photo - August 2015
Gresham, Mark “FLUX Projects sounds out of Ponce City Market,” EarRelevant, October 2019
Galani, VAghi BHMADECO feature, No. 30, April 2010
Fox, Catherine “Review: Terrorism, apocalypse and food-fight humor…” ArtsATL, November 2010
2009 Honigman, Ana Finel “decorate or deliberate?” SLEEK Magazine, Autumn 2009, p.103 (image)
Barrero, Granada “#0000”, DXI Magazine, September 2009
Rodriquez, Matthew “Obese Eames chairs,” SUNfiltered, Sundance Channel, September 8, 2009
Keeps, David A. “What we’re reading: Core77 on mutant Eames chair,” Los Angeles Times, August 18, 2009
Smith, Lisa “Mark Wentzel’s Fat Eames Chairs,” Core77: design magazine & resource, August 17, 2009
Lichtendorf, Victoria “Holla from Hotlanta: Beyond Tutlanta,” Art:21 Magazine, May 27, 2009
Aishman, Steve “Dangling car raises questions,” Atlanta Journal Constitution, May 23, 2009
Fox, Catherin, “Art has cultural muscle,” Atlanta Journal Constitution, May 22, 2009
Fox, Catherine “Posters at Museum of Design Atlanta, and a “Morale Hazard,” ArtsATL, May 2009
Pupovac, Sanja “Forse Abbiamo Esagerato”, PATA Magazine, February, 2009: 8
2007 Gopnick, Blake “The Idea: A Plus-Size Eames.” Washington Post, Style & Arts - STUDIO, August 26, 2007
Jenkins, Mark “At Area Galleries, Singularly Focused Groups,” Washington Post, Friday, August 24, 2007
Dawson, Jessica “Green Roofs That Top a Dark Future,” Washington Post, August 18, 2007, C02
Green, Roger “Marrying Function to Form…Tension Between Art and Industry,” Booth Arts Writer, May 2007
2000 Coppens, Julie York “Intermission: Small gestures speak volumes...,” South Bend Tribune, August 13, 2000
Drake, Jeanette Wenig, “Lost and Found,” Dialogue, Sept/Oct 2000
Cantu, John Carlo, “At Art Center: refuse offers a refuge…” The Ann Arbor News, Jul. 15,2000
Smiljanic, Ognjen, Tooth: Journal of the Arts, Vol. I, Issue 1, pp. 39-45, 2000
Collections & AwardsField Experiment, People’s Choice Award – Goat Farm Art Center, Atlanta, GA
IFund Grant, Chromizone Project – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
The Fabric Workshop and Museum – Artist-in-Residence (AIR) Program nominee, Philadelphia, PA
Project Grant, Center for Creativity and Arts, Emory University
3-D Juried Prize, Artprize, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Polk Corporation, Southfield, Michigan
South Bend Regional Museum of Art – Permanent Collection
Michigan State University Union Arts Council Award.