EVAN BLACKWELL

Using found objects mostly recycled building materials, Evan Blackwell’s art explores the contrasts between the built and natural environments, highlighting growth and deterioration. Repurposing cast-off objects, Blackwell seeks to create work that reflects modern existence. In contrast to his found-object assemblages are his porcelain pieces. Objects like hard hats recreated in porcelain take on significance in their fragility, the antithesis of the objects they are based on. Concerned with consumerism and social contradiction, Blackwell’s pieces vary greatly in material and appearance, but point towards his vision.

Blackwell received a BFA cum laude from Alfred University School of Art & Design, Alfred, NY, and an MFA from the University of Washington, Seattle, WA. He has shown his work at galleries across the United States, and has been in exhibitions as far afield as the Shanghai Duolon Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China, and Palazzo Pio Righetti, Rome, Italy. Blackwell was a teaching assistant for Akio Takamori and Tetsuya Yamada, and has been an instructor at the Evergreen State College and in the University of Washington Graduate Program. Blackwell has also received a number of awards including being a finalist for the Betty Bowen award at Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA, Emerging Artist in Residence at Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA, and the Takt Kunstprojektraum Residency, Berlin, Germany among others. His work is part of collections including Weyerhaeuser, Seattle, WA and the Washington State Art Collection, Spokane, WA. In 2016 Blackwell created a permanent installation at Facebook’s Seattle Offices.