November 20, 2021 - June 19, 2022

Philadelphia artist Michelle Marcuse utilizes recycled carboard to create her sculptural forms. Marcuse is drawn to salvaged cardboard because it bears the folds, markings, and indentations of its history. It’s the visible wear and the textures of the cardboard that she sees as beautiful.  

Marcuse builds her structures intuitively. Her aesthetic enables viewers to see the abundant points of connection, how one cardboard fragment is attached to another. She describes her process as an “emotional experience” inspired by how she played as a child, it was “very imaginative and make believe.”  

Marcuse’s fond memories of play are forever marred as a child who grew up in apartheid South Africa. Although young, she was aware of the racism that plagued her country. These contrasting experiences are evidenced in her sculptural forms that embody energetic gestural motions yet simultaneously appear to be in varied stages of decay. Similarly, her forms with their purposefully exposed means of construction are stabile but also appear skeletal and fragile. Are they emerging or collapsing?  

The dualities in Marcuse’s work reflect the artist’s memories and her on-going creative practice that seeks to reconcile how decay is perceived, she has said, “there is a beauty and energy embedded in change.”  

Visit michellemarcuse.com