Stephanie Robison Arch, 2021
Marble and felted wool
28 x 24 x 6 1/2 inches
Presented by Foster/White Gallery
New to both Foster/White Gallery and the Seattle Art Fair, the sculpture of Stephanie Robison plays with multiple contrasting relationships. Her latest series combines her skilled stone carving and the process of needle felting wool, a new technique for Robison. By bringing together these incongruous materials, she works to synthesize and fuse; hard with soft, organic with geometric, natural with architectural, hand-made with the industrially uniform. Focusing on materiality and color, Robison creates charming, often humorous or awkward shapes referencing aspects of the body, relationships, and the environment.
Through Robison’s mastery of stone carving and needle felting, Arch merges the decorative and domestic object of a sconce with a robust architectural form. Understanding the material’s potential and inherent tactile nature, Robison constructs a wool structure that stands on its own. Piecing together the components of her sculptures like a puzzle, she explores the relationship between form, texture, and color. By transforming reclaimed stone and felted wool, Robison’s organic forms come alive through her labor-intensive process of creation.
Bio: Originally from Oregon, Robison currently resides in California teaching sculpture and serving as Art Department Chair at the City College of San Francisco. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the University of Oregon. Robison’s work has been exhibited at Marrow Gallery and Orange County Center for Contemporary Art in California, Robischon Gallery in Colorado, Yeiser Art Center in Kentucky, Kouri & Corrao in New Mexico, Site:Brooklyn Gallery in New York, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and Greater Denton Arts Council in Texas, Foster/White Gallery and Tacoma Art Museum in Washington, and Peter Robertson Gallery in Alberta, Canada. Robison also serves as the Educational Director for the California Sculptors Symposium and is an active member of the North- west Stone Sculptors Association.