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Artist Statement

Hailing from rural Pennsylvania to attend graduate school in Philadelphia, Ethan Storms’ work has evolved during his time in the city to come to terms with the identity of the two spaces that he finds himself in.

 

Using chainsaw carving and its history of representation reflecting the values of its community utilizing themes like nationalism and domain, Storms asks in what way does the conflation of those themes within these objects change the cultural meaning of the medium or technique once removed from its attachment to those rural values?

 

The video and assemblage work then interrupts this general transplantation of a medium to divide the viewers vision that is fractured by window frames, mirrors, and plastic fencing while simultaneously considering ideas of surveillance and repetition. These projections portray movement through transit, forcing a flashing and nervous pace, that contrasts the stillness of his sculptures. Ultimately, all becoming an amalgamation of his experience.

 

The work operates as a means of critiquing these imagined and real sites, while validating Storms’ part within them. Through this push and pull, he evaluates himself to understand and confront his role within these systems. These problematics can include national pride shifting into a toxic masculinity in the rural sense, or the classist forms within hostile architecture in the urban sense.

 

However, the work looks to gravitate towards the grey area between these binaries of known/unknown, rural/urban, and nostalgia/critique in an attempt to complicate and genuinely understand the reality of this in-between space.

Biography

Ethan Storms is a Pennsylvania-based Studio Artist obtaining his M.F.A. from Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University. Ethan obtained his B.F.A. in 2020 at Kutztown University. He has worked as a Teaching Assistant, a Sculpture and Darkroom Technician as well as a Gallery Assistant. Ethan has had his photographic and sculptural work featured in numerous juried exhibitions through out the state of Pennsylvania.

Education 

2021 - 2023

*candidate

M.F.A. Studio Art, Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University (Sculpture)

2016 - 2020

B.F.A. Studio Art, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania (Photo & Sculpture)

Exhibitions 

2023   An American Homonym

             Temple Contemporary, Philadelphia, PA

2022   I’ll Take Care of You

             Pilot+Projects, Philadelphia, PA

2020  Senior Exhibition

            Kutztown University

             Juror: Dr. Crow, Director of Lehigh University Galleries

 

2019    A Different Perspective on Light

           College Boulevard Gallery, Kutztown University

 

            Applied Digital Arts

            Ramp Gallery, Kutztown University

 

            Inspirare da Italia

            Atrium Gallery, Kutztown University

 

            Void 

            College Boulevard Gallery, Kutztown University

 

2018    Baggage Claim

            Eckhaus Gallery, Kutztown, PA

 

2017    Constructed Image Photo Exhibition

            College Boulevard Gallery, Kutztown University

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