Penny Truitt

Fall 2024- Chiaroscuro is pleased to present Penny Truitt’s fourth solo exhibition titled, “Edges.” The exhibition brings together a select body of work from the last several years, as well as her most recent sculptures in ceramic, steel and a combination of both.

Truitt explains:

“For me edges mark the limits of boundaries and are the cohesive conceptual underpinning of all my sculpture; where one form ends and the possibility of another begins. Implict in the form is space that extends outward, both physical and imaginary. Defining the edges that recognize the space opens possibilities beyond containment.“

A ceramic sculptor for the majority of her career, Truitt started working in steel a few years ago to challenge herself with a new material and methods, seeing where her forms and surfaces would go in the new medium. Inspiration came when she realized working in steel was taking her sculpture in new directions, and redefining her relationship with form and forced a shift in perception.

Winter 2021-2022, "Ignoring Borders" Artist Statement:

New work explores the theme of places without borders. Images of wind and water keep re-emerging - both are elements that ignore all but natural currents. The "Dispersal" series refers to seed containers; containers that are ambivalent pods or boats. I imagine them gliding through water or skimming a landscape, propelled by wind. Perhaps the phenomena of natural dispersion and migration can suggest a newly-found freedom and disregard for boundaries on many levels.

Spring 2020
"Intended Consequences" consists of a new body of sculpture which sets three-dimensional ideas into motion employing two forms in each piece, one of clay, the other steel. While thinking about the cardinal points of North, South, East and West, Truitt makes hand-built clay forms as a representation of the landscape, which is disrupted by steel forms breaking through the clay. The analogy implies steel as a man-made interruption or barrier imposed on the clay. She explains. “Building a barrier wall has both political and environmental consequences that remain long after the wall disintegrates.” While she doesn’t intend for the artwork to appear political in nature, she is thinking about these analogies within her forms.

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