Opening Reception: Friday, January 16, 6–8 pm
Derek Eller Gallery is pleased to present Nebula, a singular monumental sculpture by Michelle Segre in the North Room. Cosmological, skin-like, and bursting with color, Nebula is over ten feet tall and is comprised of some of Segre’s signature materials including yarn, wool, ceramic, acrylic polymer, and wire.
Conceived of during the last several years as a positive and rather humorous antidote to this apocalyptic moment, Nebula posits an alternative to earthly boundaries. The word itself denotes a large cloud of gas and dust located in outer space. Nebulae can originate from either the detritus of hydrogen, helium, and other substances expelled by the explosion of a dying star (i.e., a supernova) or can exist as a region where new stars are born.
It is both this dichotomy of purpose and the materiality of the nebula which interests Segre. It can be a place of ending or beginning, suggesting the kind of circularity to existence that Carl Sagan refers to in his statement, "The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself."
A fringe frames the central cell-like form which evokes a membrane or placenta. The surface of this form is built from cheesecloth and muslin coated with acrylic polymer and inset with a serpentine path of yarn and string. Nebula functions as a portal, a kind of "space skin", into which one can imagine passing through to be immersed in a vast, red void, while at the same time, the undeniable material presence of the sculpture grounds us to the earth.
Michelle Segre (b. 1965) has had solo exhibitions at venues such as lumber room in Portland, Oregon and University Art Museum, University at Albany, SUNY. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at the deCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA; the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Overland Park, KS; Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT; and MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, NY. She has been honored with grants and fellowships, including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, the American Academy for the Arts and Letters Award, a NYFA grant, a Tiffany Foundation grant, a Colene Brown Art Prize, and a residency at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Umbria, Italy. Public collections include the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Tang Museum in Saratoga Springs; and the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, WI. Segre is a graduate of the Cooper Union School of Art. She lives and works in New York City and Mount Washington, MA. This will be her ninth solo exhibition at the Gallery.