Michelle Grabner

Untitled, 2016

Sagaponack

Wisconsin-born, Michelle Grabner works in a variety of mediums including drawing, painting, video and sculpture.

 Grabner’s latest sculptures are casts of hand-crocheted and knitted blankets, many of which were used as templates for her abstract paintings. Collected over decades, these textiles have lent themselves to different modes of “usefulness,” functioning first as an object of comfort and care before becoming the physical framework for fine art objects, losing their original form during this transformation.

 They are human in scale, relating both to Grabner’s own body and the physicality of their fabrication. To create these sculptures, Grabner first made wax molds of the blanket she intended to cast. Molten bronze was then poured into the molds, burning out both the fabric and wax, thereby sacrificing the original textile. 

Solo exhibitions at

• the Indianapolis Museum of Art

• the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland

• INOVA, The University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

• Ulrich Museum, Wichita, Kansas

• University Galleries, Illinois State University, Normal.