Artist Josiah McElheny joins Rail Editor-at-Large Charlotte Kent for a virtual conversation on Monday, May 3 at 1 PM EST. The talk will conclude with a poetry reading from Eileen Tabios.
New York based artist Josiah McElheny’s sculptures, paintings, installations, performances, and films engage with the history of ideas across wide-ranging fields of study—from literature to architecture, music theory, and astronomy—transforming this research into physical form. His works often combine glass or mirror with other materials, to emphasize the importance of the act of looking “as a subject in and of itself.” A skilled glassblower, McElheny frequently incorporates hand-blown and shaped glass within evocative assemblages, whose mode of presentation creates a sense of unsettled ideals, and a challenge to fixed definitions. The material serves as a productive agent, inciting chance encounters between forms and ideas that point toward alternative histories and futures.
Assistant Professor of Visual Culture at Montclair State University Charlotte Kent, PhD investigates the absurd in contemporary art and speculative design, often in relationship to issues of digital culture. She writes for Artists Magazine, CLOT, Litro, Musée, and regularly for the Brooklyn Rail, among others. She serves on the Board of Governors of the National Arts Club. Charlotte is an Editor-at-Large for the Brooklyn Rail.