NYAB Event - Andrea Loefke “Homecoming”

Andrea Loefke “Homecoming”

Smack Mellon

This event has ended.

“For many years my work has cycled in and around the themes of nature at large and on a more specific level, the extremes of weather. Having experienced the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, this subject matter has become an even more significant topic for me. With my site-specific installation Homecoming I have continued my exploration of nature through collecting, sampling, domesticating, enhancing, transforming and re-creating found objects.

The assemblages within Homecoming are made from natural materials as well as consumer goods and household objects. Through a formal yet improvised process, natural elements like tree branches are transformed and combined with man-made objects in an attempt to domesticate nature, creating new hybrid forms. Positioned atop a 35’ x 12’ elevated boat-shaped platform these ensembles have found their temporary home from an imagined flood. Cut and broken trees are the predominant elements of this installation, suggesting destruction and reflecting the remnants of a storm.”

Andrea Loefke is a German-born sculptor with a Masters degree in art education from University of Leipzig, Germany and an MFA in sculpture from Ohio State University. She has been a resident at the MacDowell Colony, Smack Mellon and the Bemis Center. In 2010, she received the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award. Loefke was commissioned to create a site-specific permanent installation for the SØR Rusche Collection in Berlin in 2009 and recently completed a large-scale two-dimensional work commissioned by Central Park Place, NY. Her work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States and Germany. Notable venues include: Islip Art Museum, NY; The Sculpture Center, OH; Heidelberger Kunstverein, Germany; Grounds for Sculpture, NJ; Michael Steinberg Gallery, NY; Kasia Kay Art Projects, IL; Galerie Schuster, Germany; Vox Populi, PA; Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, SUNY College, NY; Downtown Gallery, University of Tennessee, TN; and Farbraum at Radialsystem, Germany. Loefke’s work has appeared in a number of publications including Artforum, Sculpture, Brooklyn Rail and the Frankfurter Allgemeine. Especially notable among the publications is an extended interview with British art critic Paul Black, published in the May 2008 issue of Sculpture. Her work can be found in numerous private collections, and the Bezirksärztekammer (Karlsruhe, Germany). Loefke currently lives and works in Brooklyn and is an adjunct professor in Sculpture at Pratt Institute, NY.