Sam Moyer
The process-based artist challenging the way we see familiar textures.
Sam Moyer’s artworks have an uncanny quality — familiar yet somehow new.
This effect arises from her recurring use of quotidian textures that Moyer deconstructs, manipulates and reframes. She makes the once common pattern defamiliarized, to be seen in a new context.
For example, Moyer’s 2009 series “Worry Rug,” included Ikea rugs that had been picked apart and deconstructed to the point of abstraction.
Similarly, in her following series of fabric works, she dyed, ironed and bleached textiles to create new patterns using both quotidian materials and tools. The resulting textures maintain an incredible depth in their monochrome, reminiscent of a black and white landscape photograph.
This effect references Moyer’s own training in photography, which continues to influence her work outside of photographic media:
“When I hang the piece on the wall I’m not trying to get you to imagine me making it. I’m really trying to make the piece on the wall provide a surface that’s subjective, that you can bring your own stuff to… The action behind my work is referential to printmaking and photography, and that helps to see there is a process to it, but it’s not about my performance of the process…” — Same Moyer (Painters’ Table)
In a departure from the her earlier art, Moyer’s most recent work uses marble as their material, positioning the great stones to affect new patterns and shapes.
The resulting sculptures not only play with the stones’ naturally occurring texture but also challenge their incredible weight — positioning them as one would a much lighter canvas.
Moyer enjoys the heavier material — specifically the reactionary quality it gives her work:
“That’s my biggest struggle with painting is that you’re given this blank square and you have to come up with every single part on your own, so it can be daunting when you’re trying figure out where to start. With this, I already have a starting point to react to. It becomes a process of reaction and decision-making. “
— Sam Moyer (GQ)
Sam Moyer lives and works in Brooklyn. She received her BFA from the Corcoran College of Art and Design and her MFA from the Yale School of Art. She has exhibited her work at MoMA PS1 in New York, The Hole Gallery in New York, The Journal Gallery in Brooklyn, Michael Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles and Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. She has also had solo exhibits at Rachel Uffner in New York and Société in Berlin.
You can now acquire a Sam Moyer work on canvas at ArtList.co.
This post was written with the help of Alice Mahoney.
