In work that integrates the theories and methodologies of both fine art and craft, Courtney Puckett transforms domestic cast-offs, such as old furniture, household goods, and textiles, into abstract assemblages. The armatures of found objects are largely disguised with old bedsheets and clothing, like skin on a skeleton. Committed to environmental justice, she sources rather than buys materials, saving everyday objects from the landfills and rehabilitating them into sculptural forms. Like a hunter, she seeks out materials. Like a gatherer, she saves whatever comes her way until she has a use for it. The large-scale works on display at Furnace, “The Harvester” and “The Orbiter”, are part of an ongoing series of human-sized characters or archetypes with tiles that suggest occupational or social roles; homespun avatars in a hyper-mediated social world.

On Drawing

On view for the first time are a large collection of Puckett’s drawings. For Puckett, drawing is a two-dimensional visual mapping for intuitive three-dimensional exploration. In contrast to the slow nature of her sculpture process, her drawings are quick; often small-scale doodles with colored pencils and markers. Still, they carry the same humility of what can be made by hand and with what is readily available.

 Courtney Puckett is a Hudson Valley visual artist and educator. She has been an Artist-in-Residence at Saltonstall Foundation, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, LMCC’s Workspace Program, a 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 in Aix-en-Provence, France, Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, 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 husband, artist Colin O’Con, and rescue dog Penelope.