Bio
Raised with a twin brother in a conservative Christian suburb of Dallas, Connor Walden is an artist currently in Los Angeles. After spending his formative years as an adult in the liberal secular cities of Austin and Seattle, Connor finds himself in a state of ambivalence, holding a complex of feelings, ideologies, and communities. In order to continue this dialectic move, Connor’s studio becomes a playground to feel around for common threads and pokey stitches. His current body of work investigates the relationship between steel and yarn, two materials he learned to work with from his grandfather and grandmother, respectively. Playfully and intuitively made, the works explore the tension and relationship between hard and soft, heavy and light, tough and tender—while also confronting the gendered context of material to parallel his own identity formation.
Connor has exhibited throughout the US, including Seattle, Austin, Los Angeles. He is in collections in California, Washington, and Texas.
Connor co-founded the seattle residency project and Interloper in collaboration with artist Tiffany Danielle Elliott. the seattle residency project is an experimental residency that supports artists and furthers complex conversations in order to inform a future residency/think tank. Interloper is a network of exhibitions and conversations that focuses on putting money into the hands of artists saying the things we aren’t supposed to say.
Artist Statement
My recent body of work investigates the relationship between steel and yarn, two materials I learned to work with from my grandfather and grandmother, respectively. The gendered expectations fostered by these complimentary people set up a false dichotomy of strength and gentleness I continue to contemplate in my studio and in my life.
Playfully and intuitively made, the Cradle Series makes visible our relationships, exploring the origins of tension in ourselves passed down to us by our ancestors. This concept is manifested through bent steel and knit motifs, revealing the beauty of tangled bonds. Space is captured and held by the sculpture's clean lines and hard edges, becoming a cherished character in each work.
Gravity is the consistent, invisible agent of this body of work, both through the tactile, kinetic element of the freestanding sculptures and the seemingly precarious wall mounts inspired by rock climber's handholds. It is gravity that pulls the pieces into a moment of equilibrium. Subjected to repeated oscillation and reconciliation with the omnipresent forces of physics, the sculptures come to rest—gradually and gratefully.
The sculptures with a solitary steel piece represent portraits of individuals, whereas the sculptures with pairs of steel reveal interpersonal dynamics. Throughout this body of work, I am interested in how our interior worlds are affected by external interactions and the interplay between the two. While the cradles we are nurtured in is where the external pours into the interior, these Cradle sculptures illuminate the interior to see what is truly ours.
CV
Connor Walden
born in Georgia, USA
Lives and works in Los Angeles, California
EDUCATION
2019 MFA, 3d4m: ceramics+glass+sculpture, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
2017 BA, Studio Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
2017 BBA, Marketing, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020 “Can We Just Cuddle?”, Das Schaufenster, Seattle, WA
2019 “Transitional Objects”, North Gallery, Seattle, WA
2018 “Relic en Route”, Side Note Gallery, Seattle, WA
2016 “Divinitive Logistics Solutions”, Locker95, Austin, TX
TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2023 “Push & Pull”, Monte Vista Projects, Los Angeles, CA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 “Open Call: Apophenia”, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2023 “Olly Olly Oxen Free”, Vesper Austin, Austin, TX
2023 “Coding Creativity”, Hera Gallery, Wakefield, RI
2023 “Ode - K’an”, Mini Mart City Park, Seattle, WA
2023 “Open Call”, Monte Vista Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2023 “Objects of Agency”, Virtual Exhibition at Hera Gallery, Wakefield, RI
2022 “P3: The Poetry & Painting Project”, Liberty Bank Building, Seattle, WA
2022 “Meet Us in the Afterglow”, SOIL Gallery, Seattle, WA
2021 “Interfacing With Missed Connections”, Artworks Center for Contemporary Art, Loveland, CO
2020 “EXTRA”, the Vestibule Gallery, Seattle, WA
2020 “Please Stay Home”, Online Art Exhibition hosted by the seattle residency project
2019 “2019 MFA + MDES Thesis Exhibition”, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA
2019 “House Cooling”, Townhome Gallery in Magnolia, Seattle, WA
2019 “Cobblestones and Lumber”, SFAI – Fort Mason Campus, San Francisco, CA
2019 “Strange Coupling Auction”, the Jacob Lawrence Gallery, Seattle, WA
2019 “Surplused”, Surplus Store at UW, Seattle, WA
2018 “Etudes”, Jacob Lawrence Gallery, Seattle, WA
2018 “Strange Coupling”, Columbia City, Seattle, WA
2018 “(insular)”, Ceramic and Metal Arts Building, Seattle, WA
2017 “Teeter”, Visual Arts Center, Austin, TX
2016 “Convention”, ART Building, Austin, TX
2016 “Art by the Pound”, Museum of Human Achievement, Austin, TX
2016 “Now’s the Time”, Visual Arts Center, Austin, TX
2015 “Generous Art”, the Belmont, Austin, TX
COMMISSIONS
2023 “Waveform”, Private Collector, Santa Monica, CA
RESIDENCIES
2023 “IKEA Residency” at IKEA Residency, Burbank, CA
2023 “Ode - K’an Residency” at Mini Mart City Part, Seattle, WA
2021 “AIRs Program” at Freya with OpenDoor, Seattle, WA
2020 the seattle residency project, Seattle, WA
PUBLICATIONS
2022 Vita Poetica, Online Publication
2021 DARIA, Denver, CO
2020 Edge of Faith Magazine, Online Publication
2016 Glass Mountain, Houston, TX
2015 Analecta 41, Austin, TX
2014 Rio Review, Austin, TX
PUBLIC INSTALLATIONS
2018 “Lift Off”, University of Washington Botanic Gardens, Seattle, WA
2013 “LIFE II”, Allen Arts Alliance, Allen, TX
INTERVIEWS
2018 Conspiritors Podcast
2017 Arte! Alive
