Rachel Harrison

Rachel Harrison was born in New York in 1966, where she lives and works.  

Rachel Harrison challenges the boundaries between abstraction and figuration by combining sculpture with photography, found objects, and other media. Her works occupy a space between the real and the imagined, appearing at once complete and provisional, fragile and deliberately unresolved. Blending ready-mades with handmade elements, Harrison disrupts conventional expectations of sculpture, juxtaposing abstract forms with recognizable objects, photographs, or cultural references. She also rethinks the role of the pedestal, treating it alternately as a display device, a sculptural element, or a source of visual disruption. Through unexpected combinations of materials, colors, and imagery, her hybrid works invite viewers to question established systems of meaning, often with a sharp and understated sense of humor. 

Harrison was the recipient of the 2011 Calder Prize. During her residency at Atelier Calder, she explored how a new environment could shape her artistic process. Spending three months in Saché, far removed from her usual surroundings, provided the conditions to investigate a different formal direction in her work. The residency became an opportunity to respond to an unfamiliar context and expand the visual language of her sculptural practice.