ᴛᴀᴜꜱꜱᴇɴ ʙʀᴇᴡᴇʀ + ꜱᴀʀᴀʜ ɴꜱɪᴋᴀᴋ
𝘑𝘰𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘣
May-June 2021
Grifter is pleased to announce ‘Joy was not made to be a crumb’ a two person exhibition by Sarah Nsikak and Taussen Brewer.
Inside Grifter, hand-sewn quilts by Nsikak hang intermingled with large scale ceramic sculpture and ornaments by Brewer. While Nsikak works exclusively with repurposed vintage materials, Brewer builds by hand, her every touch visible on the surface and shape of her vessels.
Narrative imagery unfolds like a gift, textile and clay creating a joyful diorama. Brewer has worked collaboratively with her students to create charms that adorn the title piece of the show, a diaphanous engagement with nature through craft and community. Bulbous sprouts, clouds abutting a square frame, and vessels within vessels suggest little pieces of other artworks that have been contemplated and devotionally placed on a shelf.
One of Nsikak’s wall works depicts a woman gazing into a flower, the other, a loose grid, is filled with objects suggesting shapes as feeling or meaning. Yellow ocher and gingham are reminiscent of a beautiful dress worn to a picnic. Nsikak’s technique, an homage to her Nigerian heritage is both practical and beautiful, a celebration of doing, making and being. The humble acts of sewing and building, with materials dug from the earth or excised from the fashion industry gives way to a deeper intuitive logic and morality. The story is a bit of everything, all at once. Birds singing, cats meowing, vines growing, and things continuing with and without us.
Photographs by Cary Whittier. Writing by Adrianne Rubenstein.
