Gay Outlaw Mutable Object

San Francisco-based artist Gay Outlaw is recognized for her rigorous and unexpected explorations of material—from printmaking and photography to sculpture made of wood, glass, caramelized sugar, and bronze. For this exhibition, she employs a range of materials to create a dialogue between shape, color, surface, and interiority. Outlaw’s keen observation of the everyday world is evidenced in her photographs. Images and ideas from these are collated and translated into sculpture, lending the viewer a fresh and insightful perspective on our environment and the objects that surround us. New to her practice are a group of photo assemblages—a direct combination of her original photographs with sculptural elements that the artist calls “puddles” of glass. Also featured are free-standing sculptures, which spring from Outlaw’s dialogue with photography and again connect to both the material and structures of her earlier work. Working intuitively, Outlaw regularly circles back to her photographs as well as her previous sculptures, mining their content and forms for new strategies and insights. Born in 1959 in Mobile, Alabama, Gay Outlaw received her BA in 1981 from the University of Virginia. She attended the École de Cuisine La Varenne, Paris, France (1981–82) and took courses at the International Center of Photography (1987–88). Her glass work, in particular, benefits from two Pilchuck residencies, in Seattle, in 2007 and 2014, and a Tacoma Museum of Glass residency in 2009. She is represented by Anglim Gilbert Gallery in San Francisco.