Installation view of three large ceramic sculptures on wheels in a gallery space

Grace Sachi Troxell, Potato Séance (2021). Clay, steel, and organic material.

Grace Sachi Troxell is a sculptor who utilizes organic matter, clay, and steel. Misshapen, ugly vegetables—1/3 of which are discarded before arriving at supermarkets for aesthetic reasons—are embraced by Troxell as sources of inspiration. She slipcasts vegetables that she has grown herself, seeking to honor the unusual aspects of vegetables that are typically rejected by the market. Reinstilling value in the discarded, these cast forms are integrated into her sculptures of mixed clay and steel. Looping steel support systems function as more than a physical structure for clay casts, but are a metaphor for the entanglement between the man-made and natural world.

Troxell received a BS in Studio Art from Skidmore College, a Post-Graduate certificate in painting from the Glasgow School of Art, and an MFA from Cornell University. She has been artist in residence at MacDowell, Yadoo, the Studios at MASSMoCa, The Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China, Woodstock Byrdcliffe, Willapa Bay AiR, Sculpture Space, and is a 2022-2023 resident at Sharpe Walentas. She is currently a Visiting Critic at Cornell University.

About Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program

The Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program awards rent-free non-living studio space to 17 visual artists for year-long residencies in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Its mission is to provide working studio space and community for artists. Artists are selected annually based on merit from a competitive pool of applicants by a professional jury comprised of artists and members of the SWSP Artists Advisory Committee.

The Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program is the new face of the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Space Program, developed for artists, by artists in 1991. In 2014 the program was renamed the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program to honor the legacy of Marie Walsh Sharpe and reflect the new sponsorship and commitment of the Walentas Family Foundation.