I IS ANOTHER.
photographs by Corn Wagon Thunder + sculptural ceramics by Shae Bishop
September 29 – December 5, 2021
I IS ANOTHER. continues the Penland Gallery’s series of exhibitions, pairing two artists in a synergistic association or conceptual conversation. Shae Bishop’s sculptural ceramic garments disrupt assumptions about function and draw attention to the role of dress in visual communication and personal identity. With her photographs, Corn Wagon Thunder alters her own self-identity, recreating a personal narrative through invented portraiture.
CORN WAGON THUNDER
Albuquerque, NM
Corn Wagon Thunder is a photographer and collage artist residing in the Southwestern United States where she is currently pursuing a master of fine arts degree at the University of New Mexico. Corn received her bachelor of fine arts in printmaking from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and has also studied at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina.
Her photographic self-portraiture is borne of a fascination with the existential questions ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Why am I?’. She is interested in dissecting the paradoxical mode and manner of her own being. With a nod to the absurd, she uses symbolism to visualize the riddle of life. Yet, with tenderness toward the mysterious edges of self-discovery. She uses language to dance with the visual, to provide way-finding but also to reinforce mystery. She focuses the camera on herself as a method of examining her personal mythology and to consider how one constructs and transforms meaning in relation to existence.
SHAE BISHOP
Bakersville, NC
Shae Bishop was born in a small cabin in Tennessee and grew up mainly in Louisville Kentucky where he spent his childhood half at his desk and half in the woods, cultivating his two main passions: art and reptiles. Choosing the path of a maker, he attended the Kansas City Art Institute where he earned his BFA in ceramics and art history. During his time as an undergraduate he also learned to sew clothing and began a studio practice that explored the relationships between ceramics and textiles. Connections between the medias’ cultural histories, pattern-making systems, and interactions with the body led him to start a series of wearable garment sculptures made of interlaced ceramic tiles.
After completing a two year residency at Red Star Studios in Kansas City, Bishop moved to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. While there he worked as assistant to sculptor Cristina Córdova, became part of the local craft community, and assisted classes at Penland School of Craft. Bishop was a resident at the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana, and a visiting artist at San Diego State University, and California College of the Arts. Residencies, classes, and research have taken him to Hungary, Turkey, Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Indonesia. At the end of several years of travel, Bishop moved back to North Carolina. He currently works in a studio in Spruce Pine and shares a house with his partner Annie Evelyn, as well as two dogs and a snake.
INQUIRIES | For more information or to purchase works in the exhibition please contact Kathryn Gremley at gallerydirector@penland.org or 828.765.6211
SHAE BISHOP | Exhibition List
SHAE BISHOP | Website
SHAE BISHOP | Bio
CORN WAGON THUNDER | Exhibition List
CORN WAGON THUNDER | Website
CORN WAGON THUNDER | Bio
PENLAND GALLERY
Penland School of Craft
3135 Conley Ridge Road
Penland, NC 28765
828.765.6211
Currently open Wednesday through Saturday 11AM-5PM
gallery@penland.org