Vincent Stemmler

Lives and works in St. Louis, MO, USA

Artist statement

Artist Statement My personal studio practice is centered around collecting and archiving images and materials in order to capture the essence of a time and place. I’m interested in conveying how our environments influence our identities. There’s this interplay between the personal, individual memory, and the idea of a larger, collective history - that I’m interested in investigating in the work. I would say my studio practice is interested in psychology and the individual and societal fragmentations that happen when memories or entire histories are repressed, or covered up. There seems to be behaviors that make up our identities, that are reactions to our environments and our experiences. The conscious and subconscious decisions that happen in response to what we see and experience are probably my main interest. When someone looks at my work, I am interested in representing an entire experience, rather than reproducing an image of a place. Artifacts and images serve as breadcrumbs on a trail between the conscious and subconscious mind.

Artwork

• Three Columns, 2023. ceramic elements molded from the surrounding environment, cement, rebar, paint, soil, and native plant species
• A Confluence Over Time, 2023. digitally augmented photographs of the Mississippi/Missouri River Confluence, driftwood, soil and plastic waste sourced from on site
• Arm, 2023. hydrocal, wood, expanding foam
• Facade (Your face here.), 2023. appropriated billboard tarp, wood, oscillating fan
• Untitled (river amalgam 1), 2023. driftwood, styrofoam, polyurethane foam, sourced along the Mississippi Riverfront
• Al Quds, 2023. cardboard mirror backing, wooden shelf, digitally augmented stock photo of Jesus from the Isenheim Altarpiece, silicone mold of an orange, metal box, plastic cherub sculpture, salt from the Dead Sea, religious charms, fragments of the Israeli border wall
• Lovejoy, 2022. digitally augmented photograph of Lovejoy Monument, plexiglass vitrine encapsulating plant matter and plastic waste from an illegal dumping site on the grounds of Lovejoy Monument
• False Memories at the Funerary Chapel, 2022. digitally augmented photograph taken at Kutis Funeral Home, St. Louis, Missouri
• Untitled, 2022. cement, water, plants
• Selfie (iii), 2022. xerox of the artist hands and face
• "You were born belonging.", 2021. wooden shingle, granite fragment, seed pod, gold leaf, digital collage
• The Garden of the Void, 2020. ceramic, wood, cardboard, Christmas lights, spraypaint, thistles