July 21, 2022 - August 20, 2022 —

Stepping Stones

Opening Reception: Thursday, July 21, 4-9PM Special Seattle Art Fair Weekend Hours: Sat & Sun, July 23 & 24, 12-3PM
Gallery Hours: By Appointment on Saturdays, 12-3PM.

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Specialist presents Stepping Stones, an exhibition of sculptural works and drawings by Em Kettner.

Like river stones surfacing at low tide, Em Kettner’s small costumed sculptures and tile drawings forge a meandering path through the gallery. Each sculpture is assembled from separate or broken pieces of porcelain, bound together by detailed handwoven textiles, and embedded in carved wood supports. Hidden figures embroidered in the tapestries and curious faces peeping in from the tile edges prompt a sense of forward motion. The miniature scale of Kettner’s work is a nod to votive objects, historically placed on altars by the devout as pleas for relief from pain, illness, or deformity; here, however, these vignettes celebrate a support system that in the artist’s life has been both social and designed. Steps, railings, helping hands, and vigilant companions represent moments of hybrid locomotion and mutual dependency.  Little by little wearing through the steps, the sculpted bodies twist themselves into ad hoc bridges, stretching toward one another and toward higher ground.

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Em Kettner (b. 1988, Philadelphia, PA) is an artist based in Richmond, CA. Recent solo exhibitions include “Slow Poke” and “The Understudies” at François Ghebaly Gallery (Los Angeles, CA),  “Play the Fool” at Goldfinch (Chicago, IL), and “The Eternal Worm” at Harpy (Rutherford, NJ). Em’s work has been reviewed and published in ArtForum, Art in America, Contemporary Art Review LA (CARLA), HyperAllergic, and Sixty Inches From Center.  She has been the recipient of the Wynn Newhouse Award, the MIUSA Women’s Institute on Leadership and Disability, an SAIC Teaching Fellowship, and the 2019-2020 AAC Diversity + Leadership Fellowship.  Em earned her BFA from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is represented by Goldfinch in Chicago and François Ghebaly Gallery in Los Angeles & New York.

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