Erica Wessmann

Erica Wessmann, affectionately known as Wessy, is a noodle-like creature who spent over a decade living and working in New York City before moving to Connecticut to complete an MFA sculpture. Wessy spends their days making like a maniac in a gigantic, windowless studio. Their work can and will take over any space, large or small, and will inevitably infect the world around it with its playful abundance and serious vision. Their work attempts to create openings where notions of stability are suspended to meaningfully alter the way singular perspective and subjective experience can be understood. Often, their installations bring seemingly disparate research material together into one space along with physically constructed elements to reveal complex coded materials.  Wessmann attempts to shift the viewer’s perspective materially, drawing out complex embedded histories within sculptural objects. Wessy is an acute spatial and social observer, can make anything, cares for the community, throws the best parties, requires lots of alone time, and will stun you with their karaoke ability. Wessy was born in the 80s, received a BFA from The Cooper Union in 2007, attended residencies such as Atlantic Center for the Arts, Vermont Studio Center, Oxbow, Haystack and Skowhegan, and they completed their MFA at Yale in 2017. They have lectured about their work at UCLA, The Cooper Union and Emerson College, and have taught at CalArts, Yale School of Art, Trinity College, University of Madison in Wisconsin, Pratt, and NYU.