Sugar Cube
On DISPLAY in our south gallery
april 11 - April 22
Artist Statement
My practice centers itself around the experience of being alive and all the strange, mundane, absurd, and extraordinary experiences attached to existing. The work is influenced by the different actions and interactions of the people, locations, and perspectives that I surround myself with at the time. Everything is made through a generative process where one element informs the next, spreading an idea across multiple mediums, and slowly accumulating into larger and busier expressions. Growth, death, compassion, fear. Life. These are complex ideas and feelings in my practice that I find easier to accurately express in visuals instead of words.
My current body of work expresses the idea of expanding on simplifications and categorizations through the lens of human life. What makes a person a human, and what does it mean to be alive? Bodies, memories, feelings, the food we eat, the content we collect and consume, the words we say, or the things we leave behind: all components that are presented as visuals for the viewer to reflect on and create their own narratives and personal connections with.
Artist Bio
Salem Alhussaini is an interdisciplinary artist with a focus on ceramics. In 2022, he earned his BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. His interests include (but are not limited to) turtles, the color blue, and stickers. Through the utilization of materials, found objects, and metaphors, his work expresses ideas relating to daily practices, art histories, and universal themes. When he’s not in the studio, you can find him scavenging in the woods or frequenting the nearest skatepark.
