Samuel Wildman

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samuel_the_serious/

Website: https://www.samuelwildman.com/

Bio: Wildman received his MFA in Art Practice from UC Berkeley and a BFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design. He is a passionate and frequent collaborator and has received grants from 4Culture, SDOT, and the City of Seattle Arts and Culture. Samuel has been awarded residencies at Ox-Bow School of Art and Artist Residency, Monson Arts, Sou’wester Arts Week, Signal Fire, MADArt, and others. He is the recipient of the 2023-24 Graduate Fellowship at the Headlands Center for the Arts and the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award. His work has been mentioned in Sculpture Magazine, and his collaborative project “bevintage” was listed by Creative Capital as On Our Radar. Wildman lives and works in Berkley, CA.

Statement: Samuel Wildman (Berkeley, CA) works in sculpture, video, and installation. As a handyman and a dad, his practice is rooted in the strange and sometimes mystical bodies of knowledge embedded in the soft labor of caretakers, baby whisperers, and fixers. He describes his practice as a comfortable, home-like space that finds definition in the moments when familiarity falters. His objects and installations are inspired by the unpredictable forms produced when social and political absurdities appear as normalized, familiar, and home-like situations. He uses his practice to bring the depth and focus of highly disciplinary fields—like industrial ergonomics, ecology, ceramics, literature, and woodworking—into dialogue with each other under an organizing agenda of care and criticality.