The Existentialist

Artspace is pleased to present The Existentialist by Kansas based artist Eric Conrad in our project room from June 26-July 20, 2017.  This is second time Conrad has exhibited his work in our galleries.  He first participated in the 2001 exhibition, SOFT, a group show curated by Debbie Hesse that explored the fitting of soft sculpture into industrial space.

The Existentialist has anthropomorphic qualities characteristic of Conrad’s larger body of work, and casts a sense of perpetual yearning and trauma.  A large hand sewn suture down the form’s belly and metal zippered snout reference a Frankensteinian hybridity—this being was born of handmade materials through the labor of its creator. The figure’s limbs end in mismatched scraps of clothing culled and assembled by Conrad, who taught himself to sew and weave, so that he could create all aspects of the form.