Austin McCormick

Lives and works in Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Artist statement

My practice spans diverse mediums, exploring the collisions between the physical and simulated, the natural and artificial, process and finish. I transform discarded materials into sculptures and assemblages that investigate the afterlives of objects and our evolving relationship with both the built and natural environments. Growing up between a ballet school and construction sites in the mountains of Southern California deeply shaped my understanding of time, labor, process, and materiality—influences that continue to drive my work. I am drawn to objects marked by wear, use, and abandonment, viewing them not as waste but as repositories of memory, history, and unrealized potential. Guided by intuition and rigorous experimentation, my work responds to consumerism, excess, and environmental change, while confronting broader questions of time, causality, and human agency in an era of ecological instability. By collecting, combining, and reimagining discarded matter, I create hybrid forms that suggest moments of evolutionary transition, where organic systems and industrial structures converge. I use playful abstraction to coax unexpected relationships out of disparate materials, producing sculptures that oscillate between familiarity and ambiguity. Relying on tension and contradiction, these assemblages invite viewers to navigate uncertainty and reconsider standard notions of permanence, value, and renewal. Ultimately, by giving discarded materials new life, I propose...

Artwork