Artist Email: jonisculptor@gmail.com
Artist Website: www.joniyounkinsherzog.com
Medium: sculpture, metal, stone, fiberglass
Artist Statement
I grew up in the suburban sprawl outside of Atlanta, Georgia. After enjoying extended undergraduate studies in Athens, Georgia I moved to pursue my MFA in Sculpture from Indiana University. My work has been featured in exhibitions across the country, including New York, Fort Lauderdale, San Francisco, the “Art Prize” in Grand Rapids, Michigan; internationally in Pabianice, Poland; Cajabamba, Peru, and recently in Sang Arts Village, Ghana where I created large outdoor works. My sculptures combine beauty with absurdity often blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. Utilizing many mediums, I lure the viewer in with luscious colors and materials, to contemplate anxious content in close proximity.
My search for beauty and purpose manifests into forms that abstract femininity and vitality. Reshaping the body reflects a delight in making allegory; combined with grafting elements of the human form demonstrating my curiosity about science, medicine and the search for human perfection. My sculptures are hybrids, psychological mythologies, and manifestations of our bodies. Within my work the human body is displaced retaining ranges of recognizable features-but what remains behind is an interest in the dispersal and fertilization of the feminine mystique. I am exploring the metaphors of flowers with shifts in scale and material. I like to emphasize the physical strain and tension present in actual flower petals as they push to open and invite pollination. My objective is to ask the viewer to confront the interior and exterior space with an invitation to peek inside.