Courtney Puckett

Artist Profile

Courtney Puckett

Courtney Puckett is a Hudson Valley based visual artist and educator. She was an Artist-in-Residence at the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, LMCC’s Workspace Program, Full Fellowship recipient at the Vermont Studio Center, and received a community research grant from River Valley Arts Collective. She earned a BFA from MICA, MFA from Hunter College, and studied at the Center for Art and Culture, France, Glasgow School of Art, and University of New Mexico. Solo exhibitions include Furnace- Art on Paper Archive (CT), Hesse Flatow (NY), and Flecker Gallery at Suffolk County Community College (NY). Select group exhibitions include Dorsky Gallery at SUNY New Paltz (NY), NADA x Foreland (NY), Geary Contemporary (NY), White Columns (online), TSA (NY), and BRICArts (NY). Puckett is an Instructor of Art at Northwestern Connecticut Community College and has taught at Pratt, Parsons School of Design, and FIT. She runs the backyard art space White Rock Center for Sculptural Arts with her artist-musician husband Colin O’Con and their rescue dog Penelope.

CV

AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES

2022   Haystack Open Studio Residency, Deer Isle, ME
2022   Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, Ithaca, NY
2022   Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY (forthcoming)
2021   River Valley Arts Collective, Artist-in-Residence in Community Research, Hudson Valley, NY
2018   Underwater NY/Works on Water Incubator Residency, Governor’s Island, NY
2017   Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace Residency, New York, NY
2017   Vermont Studio Center, Artist-in-Residence, Full Fellowship Award, Johnson, VT

SOLO AND 2 PERSON EXHIBITIONS

2022   Courtney Puckett: Drawings and Sculptures, Furnace Art on Paper, Falls Village, CT (solo)
2021   NADA x Foreland, JAG Projects, Newburgh, NY
2021   The Helpers, Hesse Flatow, New York, NY (solo)
2020   Six Animated Textiles, collaboration with animator Nicole Antebi and musician Colin O’Con, New York Textile Month (online)
2018   Courtney Puckett: Sapphire Eye, Flecker Gallery, Suffolk County Community College, Selden, NY (solo)
2018   Sound and Vision: Courtney Puckett and Jessica Slaven, curated by Rachel Frank, Field Projects, New York, NY

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2022   Assembly: Time and Attention, a National Biennial, Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington, Arlington, VA
2022   Spring in Wartime, Bull Farm, Rock Tavern, NY
2022   The Material, The Thing, Hudson Valley Artists 2022, curated by Nicole Hayes, Dorsky Museum at Suny New Paltz, New Paltz, NY
2022   Tectonic Threads, curated by Ragna Froda, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ
2022   Baggage, Icehouse and Russell Janis, Brooklyn, NY and Sharon, CT

2021   Terrain Biennial Newburgh, Public Art piece at Newburgh Free Library, Newburgh, NY
2021   Fantasy, Mohonk Arts Invitational/Upstate Art Weekend, High Falls, NY
2021   As the World Turns, Geary Contemporary, Millerton, NY
2021   Sunrise Sunset, Albany Airport Art and Culture, Albany, NY
2021   Form or Function, Artport Kingston, Kingston, NY

2020   Drawing Challenge XI, Jason McCoy Gallery, NY (online)
2020   Infinite Uncertainty, Opalka Gallery, The Russel Sage Colleges, Albany, NY
2020   Assembled, Arts Brookfield 1 MetroTech, Brooklyn, NY
2020   Unraveling, Hesse Flatow, New York, NY (Online)
2020   SpringSprung, Marquee Projects, Bellport, NY

2019   Earthly Delights, curated by Susan Jennings, Julie Torres, Ellen Letcher, Reinstitute, Millerton, NY

2018   World Holes, curated by Jesse Greenberg, White Columns, New York, NY (online)
2017   Form of Touch, SVA MA Curatorial Practice, curated by Becky Nahom, Brooklyn, NY
2017   Text/ure, curated by Kristen Frederickson, Shirley Fiterman Art Center, New York, NY
2017   Nasty Woman, Knockdown Center, curated by Jessamyn Fiore, Brooklyn, NY
2016   Counterpointe: New Work by Women Choreographers and their Collaboration with Sculptors, with Brenda Neville Dance Studio, presented by Norte Maar and The Brooklyn Ballet, The Actor’s Fund Art Center, Brooklyn, NY
2016   Weave Wars, Indianapolis Art Center, curated by Kyle Herrington, Indianapolis, IN

CURATORIAL

2019- present   Curator/Co-Director, White Rock Center for Sculptural Arts, Holmes, NY
2016   Curator, TSA New York, Drawing for Sculpture, Brooklyn, NY

PUBLICATIONS

2021   Artists Quarantine with their Collections by Stephen Maine with contribution by Courtney Puckett, Hyperallergic, NY, Link 
2020   Drawings 2019-2020, self-published artist book, essay by Michelle Segre
2018   Courtney Puckett: Sapphire Eye, Flecker Gallery, Suffolk County Community College, Selden, NY, essay by Lilly Wei (exhibition catalog)
2018   What to Make of It, Interview by Jen Schwarting, Field Magazine
2018   Drawings 2014-1018, self-published artist book, essay by Glenn Adamson
2018   Stone Canoe, Journal of Arts, Literature, and Social Commentary, Vol 12., Visual Arts Editor Rebecca Murtaugh

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jenkins, Mark, The Washington Post, Link 
Art Spiel, Link
Baumgardner, Julie, Artnet.com, Link 
Leuzzi, Linda, The Long Island Advanced, Link 
Gorky’s Granddaughter, Link 
Koral, April, The Tribeca Tribune, Link 
Bomboy, Erin, The Dance Enthusiast, Link 
Garland, Heather Elizabeth, Painting is Dead, Link
Paddy Johnson, ArtFCity, Link 

EDUCATION

MFA Sculpture, CUNY Hunter College, New York, NY
BFA Painting, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD


Artist Statement

In work that integrates the theories and methodologies of both fine art and craft, I transform domestic cast-offs, such as old furniture, household goods, and textiles. I build armatures with found objects and disguise them with old bed sheets and clothing, like skin on a skeleton. Committed to Environmentalism, I source rather than buy my materials, saving everyday detritus from the landfills and rehabilitating them into sculptural forms. In an ongoing series of large-scale sculptures, I invent characters or archetypes and assign titles that suggest occupational or social roles; homespun avatars for a hyper-mediated social world. While the human-sized characters represent outwardly facing personas, a new series of small sculptures look inward and embrace the interior self and unconscious forces at play. The four elements of air, earth, fire, and water, plus the four directional coordinates of north, south, east, and west are the framework for research which informs new aesthetic decisions.