Sam Moyer: Memory Mine

Centering the exhibition on Alabama’s richness in natural resources and regional artists’ contributions, Moyer creates sculptures and paintings from one natural marble boulder mined in Sylacauga. Her impressive body of work considers questions of value, labor and beauty. Visitors sit upon the stone, touch it and experience the material, enriching the view of the stone on the wall and perceptions of time and nature.

Images courtesy of the artist and Sean Kelly Gallery NY

Since 2008, Sam Moyer has developed a distinctive language of abstraction that considers questions of value, labor and beauty. Her practice has evolved from its more conceptual and process-based origins to address formal and theoretical issues regarding the construct of painting. Examining traditional roles of painting and sculpture, Moyer reframes the painted surface as a sculptural field in which fragments of previously used stone are paired with hand-painted canvas to create dynamic compositions. She manipulates these found textures and materials into powerful and evocative abstract works that evince beauty, humor, balance and chance, employing the hand-made and readymade.

Sam Moyer’s works are included in prominent collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; the Morgan Library, New York; the Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris; The Aïshti Foundation, Beirut; and the Davis Museum, Wellesley College, MA. Moyer has exhibited her work at The Drawing Center, New York; The Bass Museum, Miami, FL; University of Albany Art Museum, New York; The Public Art Fund, New York; White Flag Projects and The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, MO; LAND, Los Angeles; and Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm. Moyer has participated in important group exhibitions including, “Inherent Structure,” Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH; “Painting/Object,” The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY; “Greater New York” and “Between Spaces” at PS1 Contemporary Art Center, Queens. In 2018, she was the subject of a solo presentation at “Art Basel Unlimited.”

Sam Moyer received her BFA from the Corcoran College of Art and Design; her MFA from Yale.