Making A Way | Translation
Artists: Linda Bond, Kathy Bruce, Dee Hood, Saskia Krafft, Nathan Margoni, Lake Roberson Newton, TJ Norris, Iviva Olenick, Mandy Cano Villalobos
Statement
Saskia Krafft’s projects originate from field trips to disturbed ecosystems. Examples are underground mines, atomic waste repositories, littered grass verges, and dried-out mountain springs. She collects plants, draws animals and characteristics of the site and its geology in order to locate them within their material, natural, and global landscape. In her current sculptural work she then translates this research into metals such as copper, aluminium, steel, and brass. Casts of specimens and tracings of plants into sheet metal preserve the memory of the specific ecosystem but also hint towards its slow destruction and disappearance. She often adds her personal narrative to the work in order to recreate abstract and anonymous themes such as ‘global warming’ into relatable, individual, and tangible encounters with the natural world.
Bio
Saskia Krafft’s drawings and sculptures are inspired by her encounters with the natural world. She lives and works in Los Angeles and Germany. She graduated with her MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University where she studied as a LeRoy Neiman Fellow and German Fulbright Scholar. She grew up near the world’s largest automobile manufacturing plant as the daughter of a theater dressmaker and a technical draftsman. Like this, she was introduced early on to the unique relationship between drawing, construction, fabrication, and the relationship of them to the body. Krafft has traveled extensively throughout Europe, the Middle East, and the United States during her studies abroad. Saskia Krafft’s work has been exhibited in Germany in institutions such as the Museum of Fine Art Leipzig, Art Museum Wolfsburg, and the Humboldt Gallery in Berlin, as well as in The Jewish Museum, Wallach Art Gallery, and Nicelle Beauchene Gallery in New York. She has participated as Artist-in-Residence at the Institute of Investigative Living at A-Z West, Montello Foundation, Museum of Lithographic Art, and Goethe Institute Paris. Krafft has received grants from the Ditze Foundation, German Academic Exchange Service, the Morty Frank Fellowship, and the Quadrille Ball Scholarship.
saskiakrafft.com
Instagram: @saskiakrafft
