Jessica Drenk upcycles materials such as junk mail and pencils into elaborately layered, sculptural wall pieces that mimic banded crystals and sedimentary stone. Many works are constructed solely from paper, while new Slice series pieces incorporate plaster to suggest quarried slabs. The compositions evoke erosion, sedimentation, and crystallization rendered in human-made form and suggest broader landscapes when viewed at scale. The practice emphasizes flow—earth, water, and perception of time as fluid—and embraces an "aqueous sensibility" that guides both making and viewing. Elemental Form is on view September 6 through November 8 at Galleri Urbane in Dallas.
If you've ever studied the rainbow-like mineral rings of petrified wood or observed light filter through the striations of a slice of agate, you'll understand Jessica Drenk's fascination with geology. The New York-based artist upcycles objects like junk mail and pencils to create elaborately layered, sculptural pieces evoking banded crystals and colorful sedimentary stone. Drenk's forthcoming solo exhibition, Elemental Form at Galleri Urbane, continues to plumb the relationship between ephemerality and eternity.
Many of Drenk's wall pieces are made solely of paper, while some new pieces, like the Slice series, incorporate plaster. Redolent of the way marble is sliced from quarries in neat slabs, "Aggregate Triptych" or "Flow" look as though they have been hewn directly from some much more expansive deposit. Panning out, we might see streams and oxbows amid a vast natural landscape.
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