Sculptor, photographer, and installation artist Nene Humphrey is well-known for her mixed-media work that explores domestic issues affecting women. Swarm, 1996, an offset lithograph printed in an edition of 70 by Robert Franklin, is related to a spoon sculptural series Humphrey had been working on for several years. She wished to achieve the illusion of three-dimensionality in her prints. The spoons and crown-like shapes in the print, like her sculpture in copper, steel, and wire, suggest depth, weight, and balance, or, the lack thereof. Because these are objects with prominent edges, a mass of tangled lines is suggested, developing a sense of overall volume and space.From the Artist
My sculptures begin very slowly—a word, an image, or shape, a phrase in a book. I have to force myself to be patient and listen so I can begin to know what is going on inside my head. My own memories are always connected in some way, although this is not always apparent for a long time. This intuitive way of working is like a kind of mapmaking— delineating the contours of a landscape imagined but never seen. For me, connecting things together in this way is like creating pools of thought that you can dive into rather than one long river that you can only navigate by following the current.
—From Brandywine Workshop and Archives records
Nene Humphrey is a New York-based sculptor and installation artist born in Portage, Wisconsin. She earned a BA from St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, IN; an MA from Goddard College, Boston; and an MFA from York University, Toronto, Canada.
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