Proximity pairs the work of Iowa City-based artists Sara Ann Cavic and Perla Camacho.
Join us for a reception with the artists Saturday August 23, 6-8pm!
On view at PS1’s Northside gallery August 15 through September 13.
Fridays 4-6pm, Saturdays 12-3pm, and by appointment.
Sara Ann Cavic earned a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and an MFA from School of Visual Arts. Born and raised in Concord, Massachusetts, she felt encouraged and embraced by the eccentric spirit of Thoreau and the Transcendentalists.
Cavic’s watercolor paintings involve direct observation of the natural world, and consider humanity’s perceived place within it. Her work has been exhibited in the United States, Europe, and Australia.
Artist statement: Some of my earliest memories are of crystalline moments of communion. The calligraphic choreography of paper wasps dangle-leg dancing in the summer eaves of the cedar bus stop. The plump heft of the tomato hornworm, lime-green and somehow objectionable. The ritual, frenzied stomping of ripe puffballs, and subsequent glee at the thick billows of their umber eruptions. The damp, dermic shells of the snapping turtle eggs skirting the edges of the gravel pit, the nest exuding a saurian power-spot energy, to a young mind the beckoning portal to a monstrous Mesozoic menagerie.
As time led me into urban life, I found it increasingly necessary to actively re-connect with nature, in a sense to return home, if only for an evening or weekend, courtesy of the MTA and Metro-North Railroad. The tenor of my work followed. At the core of my practice is long, quiet, slow seeing: over hours, days, months, years. A seeing with all senses that feels at times extra sensory. A chronic refrain of what, how, why, who. Wonderment that does not abate, even, or perhaps especially, in the presence of the ostensible, terminal closure of science ‘splaining.
Though I do not believe that humans do or ever could dominate the biosphere, (I’d sooner put my money on a virus or AGI), with the Anthropocene comes the sludge tsunami of our sus karma, cresting over millennia of human arrogance, ignorance, and folly in our dealings with the natural world and its inhabitants. With this comes the impulse to not only record, but to synthesize; to acknowledge the direness and the unease (of climate change, habitat loss, PFAs, microplastics on mountaintops, the 6th mass extinction crisis), without relinquishing the pure, vital wonder and openness of shōshin – beginner’s mind – and the vast possibilities inherent within the state of not knowing.
So this is my ramshackle wheelhouse, and it’s getting hot in here, but you’re welcome in.
Perla Camacho is a Mexican ceramic artist focused on sculpture. She graduated from the University of Veracruz in 2017 and is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Iowa.
With an intimate and eco-humanist approach, her work reflects personal inquiries into everyday objects, bodily forms, and nature. Through texture, scale, and a touch of uncanniness, she creates figurative ceramic pieces that explore emotion, empathy, and human connection.
Her work has been awarded in Mexico by the Contemporary Ceramics Biennale and the Ceramics National Award and exhibited in Mexico, the U.S and Austria.
Artist statement: What do we do when we feel powerless? Whether it’s an upsetting situation outside or within my own mind and body, I find relief only when I let it flow through my hands.
The slow and involving rhythm of ceramics allows me to meditate and understand how to shape the swirling thoughts in my mind so they can be heard clearly—like a cathartic whisper spoken with strong softness. Everyday objects and living beings, transformed by scale, materials, and glazes, become vessels not only for a message, but for a leap of hope and connection.
As an introvert, I haven’t always found it easy to express myself with words. But clay understands me. When I touch it, it listens—and responds. Sometimes with the same rage, sorrow, or joy I’m trying to untangle, but always with honesty, as it brings into form what I was struggling to say aloud.
Empathy is my ultimate goal. If my work moves someone to respond—through their words, their actions, or simply by pausing to feel—That’s when I feel I’ve truly done something.