Embracing the cultural histories of glassmaking, crafting, and cooking; my artwork celebrates community-centric, obsessive, labor-intensive ritual. My multi-disciplinary hybrid artistic practice has centered on the sculptural and social aspects of glass-making, food-making, and community-centric performances that are a hybrid of a performance, a dinner party, a happening and an interactive installation. The work I create investigates themes of societal norms, mass culture, conformity, othering, fear and temporality.
The process of collecting and assembling disparate materials into cohesive works informs my intuitive and responsive approach to my art practice. I use handmade glass as my primary material and combine it with light, found objects, food, and other mixed media to create installations, community building performances and three- dimensional works. I weave together iconographic and symbolic codes into a tapestry of textures and narratives to create different material associations for the viewer as they move through the work. By experimenting with various materials, my process develops through a dialogue with several collected or handmade original parts that I piece together into immersive environments. Some serve as scenes populated by fantastical creatures and plant life, and others become landscapes of edible sculptures for an audience to deconstruct and eat together. I invite the viewers to step outside of their usual frames of reference and engage with the unfamiliar and the extraordinary and ask them to imagine alternative ways of being relating to the world around us as well as societal norms.
Artist bio:
Erica Rosenfeld lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and has an art, design and teaching practice. She uses glass, found objects, food and mixed media to create sculptures, installations, and community-centric glass and food-making performances. While embracing the cultural histories of glassmaking, crafting, and cooking; Erica’s artwork celebrates community-centric, obsessive, labor-intensive ritual. Her hybrid artistic practice has centered on the sculptural and social aspects of glass making, food making, and performance. Her art practice investigates themes of mass culture, othering, conformity, nostalgia, fear and temporality. Her teaching practice centers around social practice and she has taught at Universities, Arts Organizations and Museums throughout the United State and Europe. She also has a line of jewelry and functional glass. Her jewelry is made from glass and found materials and is inspired by Mid-Century Modern and Turn of the Century Viennese Design. Every piece is limited edition or one of a kind.
Her work is held in private and public collections nationally and has been featured in exhibitions at the Museum of Arts and Design, Peabody Essex Museum, Kentucky Museum of Art, Racine Art Museum, Museum of American Glass and the John Michael Kohler Museum. Her work is included in the collections of the Museum of Arts and Design, Peabody Essex Museum, Toledo Museum of Art, and the Museum of American Glass. Her work has been featured in different publications including The New York Times, Glass Quarterly Magazine, Art News, New York Magazine, and Art Jewelry Forum.
