Molly Sawyer is an abstract, mixed media artist from Atlanta, Georgia whose studio practice encompasses a broad oeuvre of materials and techniques. Born in 1973, her education includes a degree in ceramics from Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina. Additional sculptural study continued at The New York Studio School and The Art Students League of New York in New York City.
It has often been remarked on how Sawyer’s work references ‘body’ and she views her studio practice as an extended interpretation of her life’s processes. Medical challenges began for Sawyer with a brain tumor at age 10. By age 35, she received a diagnosis of breast cancer. This tumultuous time involved years of treatment with a result being a redirection of her studio practice. Sawyer moved away from object-oriented works and into more conceptually based, sculptural installation work. Within this vein, she experimented with natural materials such as rust, Spanish moss, lichen, and raw animal fleece. Her process with these materials involved allowing the organics to decompose within her work in order to explore concepts of entropy and life cycle.
Age 46 moved Sawyer into additional unknown physical challenges due to what she refers to as ‘cancer maintenance’. She has navigated these changes by
continuously altering her medium and currently redirects her narrative from the end of life’s cycle to longevity, strength, and no lack of tragic comedy while traveling along its roller coaster ride in a bumper car.
Sawyer finds affinity with visual artists such as Eva Hesse, Louis Bourgeois, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Henry Moore, Ismau Noguchi, Constantin Brancusi, William Tucker, Mark Rothko, Sheila Hicks, and Anni and Josef Albers while remaining wide-eyed and inspired by the natural world. Her work has shown in
the Asheville Art Museum, CAM Raleigh, Western North Carolina University,
Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, North Greenville University, as well as in New
York, New Jersey, Georgia, and Virginia. The National Sculpture Society in New York City awarded her the Beverly Hoyt Robertson Award. She has appeared in many speaking engagements as Visiting Artist and has attended Art Residencies in Connecticut, Wyoming, and Ireland.
Her work can be found in collections both private and corporate throughout the
United States including Mandarin Hotel New York, Ritz Carlton Boston, AC Hotel MidTown Atlanta, and Mohegan Sun Casino. Sawyer’s studio practice encompasses both sculpture and works on paper.
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