Rain Harris

Artist Statement

My hand built flowers allude to nature and growth patterns but they do not strive for specificity, rather they are stylized landscapes and still lifes that question artificiality and preciousness. I reference acts of nature through the use of industrial materials. Silk flowers covered in resin become foliage caught in an ice storm, simultaneously juxtaposing the organic with the synthetic. My representation of untamed nature is pure artifice and questions the notions of permanence and sprawl.

Many of the works are made from black clay, visually contrasting the stark white porcelain, while bringing up associations of Victorian sentiments revolving around morbidity and excess. There is also a wink and a nod to collections such as Wunderkammers or Cabinets of Curiosities as well as the Blaschka Flowers along with other embedded sources. This confluence of tangible ideas, materials and cultural perceptions creates visual hybridity, which allows the viewer to bring in their own associations and interpretations into the works meaning.

Bio

Rain Harris is a sculptor and installation artist who was born in Oakland, CA and currently lives in Kansas City, MO. She received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from The Ohio State University. Her work has been exhibited in group shows at the US Chamber of Commerce, The Ferrin Gallery, the Wexner Center, and the Garth Clark Gallery. She has had solo shows at the Philadelphia International Airport, The Portland Craft Museum, The Sherrie Gallerie, and The Duane Reed Gallery. She was an NCECA emerging artist and she received Best of Show at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Art. She has received numerous grants and fellowships including an American Craft Council Emerging Artist Grant, an Independence Foundation Fellowship, three Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Special Opportunity Stipends, a Leeway Foundation Achievement Grant and two Window of Opportunity Grants. Her work is in private collections and museums, both national and internationally.