ENCOUNTER PROFOUND FIGURATIVE SCULPTURES AT NEW EXHIBITION AT CULTURAL COUNCIL FOR PALM BEACH COUNTY
Posted by: Linnea Bailey
June 20, 2024
Sarah Knouse’s body of work ‘Roots & Remnants’ explores the exquisite messiness inherent in the process of personal growth
LAKE WORTH BEACH, FL —
Like a Banyan tree’s seedlings that grow roots both downward and upward, enveloping the host tree, growth can be transformative.
Lake Worth Beach-based sculptor, designer, and arts educator Sarah Knouse has been reflecting on this since returning to Palm Beach County last year after more than a year of living abroad, now with a child. She returned to a place she knew well, though everything was different. A constant metamorphosis was in motion.
Knouse’s exhibition Roots & Remnants will take place at the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County’s Solo Gallery from June 21 through August 2. Free and open to the public, summer hours are Tuesday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m.
Through her new body of work, Knouse explores the exquisite messiness inherent in the process of personal growth. Inspired by the profound transformation of motherhood, this sculptural series reflects the contrasting sensations of erasure and accretion experienced by the recontextualization of one’s body and selfhood. Sifting through the residue of memory and stitching together familiar shadows, Knouse looks toward both the past and the future to ask, “Who am I now?”
“Sarah Knouse’s work often tells a personal story, and this exhibition offers an exploration of the evolution of her life’s roles,” said Jessica Ransom, the Council’s director of artist services and curator of the exhibition.
The exhibition will feature five striking new life-sized figurative sculptures, each made up of fragments of the female form juxtaposed with architectural elements. Within each work, ornamental artifacts of domesticity fuse to body parts via a liquid-like coating, creating the sensation of a constant flowing across its surface that is yet arrested in time.
“Aesthetically, this exhibition was inspired in part by stalagmite cave formations and the slow change that occurs over time due to the impact of dripping water,” Knouse said. “I also drew visual inspiration from the elegant yet complex root system of the Banyan tree. It represents one living organism being taken over by another in a manner that walks the line between symbiotic and parasitic relationships. The tangle of intertwined materials left behind by this process is a testament to the beautiful and constant chaos of change.”
Selected through a highly competitive application process, Knouse is one of six Palm Beach County-based professional artists whose work was chosen by a committee of visual art professionals for one of the Cultural Council’s coveted Solo Gallery exhibition spots during its 2023-2024 season.
Currently the founding art instructor of the High School at The Greene School in West Palm Beach, Knouse has exhibited her sculptures internationally, including a 2012 sculptural installation project hosted by the Hockney Gallery at The Royal College of Fine Art in London.
In addition to past exhibitions at the Cultural Council, she has exhibited at the Center for Performance Research in Brooklyn, Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, Vox Populi Gallery in Philadelphia, Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond and has been a featured finalist of the Young Sculptors Competition in Oxford, Ohio both in 2009 and in 2013. She was the sole recipient from Palm Beach County to receive the 2015 South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship for Visual Artists.
Sarah Knouse: Roots & Remnants will run from June 21 through August 2 at the Cultural Council’s headquarters in Lake Worth Beach. Visit palmbeachculture.com for more information or to register for the opening artist reception on Thursday, June 20, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.; to RSVP, visit palmbeachculture.com/knouse. To see more of her work, visit www.sarahknouse.com.
About the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County
The Cultural Council for Palm Beach County is the official support agency for arts and culture in The Palm Beaches, Florida’s Cultural Capital®. Headquartered in the historic Robert M. Montgomery, Jr. building in Downtown Lake Worth Beach, the Council presents exciting year-round exhibitions and performances featuring artists who live or work in Palm Beach County. The Council features spectacular work by Palm Beach County-based professional artisans in its Roe Green Uniquely Palm Beach Store and offers complimentary resources for visitors in its Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Visitor Information Center. During the summer, the Council is open to the public Tuesdays through Fridays from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. For more information and a comprehensive calendar of cultural events in The Palm Beaches, visit palmbeachculture.com.
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Media Contact:
Linnea Bailey (561) 713-0673
pr@palmbeachculture.com
Calendar item:
Exhibition: Sarah Knouse: Roots & Remnants — June 21 – August 2, 2024
Through her new body of work, Knouse explores the exquisite messiness inherent in the process of personal growth. Inspired by the profound transformation of motherhood, this sculptural series reflects the contrasting sensations of erasure and accretion experienced by the recontextualization of one’s body and selfhood. Sifting through the residue of memory and stitching together familiar shadows, Knouse looks toward both the past and the future to ask, “Who am I now?”. This free public exhibition will take place in the Solo Gallery at the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County, located in The Robert M. Montgomery, Jr. Building at 601 Lake Avenue in Lake Worth Beach. Summer hours are Tuesday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m. Call (561) 471-2901 or visit palmbeachculture.com.