Artist Bio

Samantha Rodin is an emerging conceptual artist living and working in York Region and Toronto. Her work has been exhibited at such venues as WhipperSnapper Gallery, Sleeping Giant Gallery, Gallery 1313 and Paul Petro Special Projects Space. Rodin has included work in the inaugural York Region Chairman’s Dinner for the Arts, Celebration of the Arts Gala and Arts Exposed conference to promote the arts in York Region. She has also dabbled in curating for independent exhibitions and worked as a curatorial intern at the Markham Museum. Rodin is also an active member of the Markham Arts Council, York Region Arts Council and Arts and Letters Club of Toronto. She is currently a blogger for YRAC’s new arts and culture portal, YorkSecene.com and was recently elected to YRAC’s 2011 Board of Directors. She also has work in private collections. Rodin graduated from York University’s Honors BFA-Visual Arts program in the spring of 2010 and completed her residency in the Independent Studio Program (ISP) at the Toronto School of Art in April of this year.


Artist Statement

My current body of work draws attention to modern day anxieties experienced in unnaturally sterile environments. I use a combination of sculptural materials, fabric, bones, and industrial objects to create installations that are visually and physically absurd manifestations of these tensions. The installations are relatively abstract though there are subtle clues that reference the body thereby allowing the viewers to locate themselves within this removed context. By situating these abstract forms on meticulously clean white surfaces, I am displacing them from any defined cultural, religious or gendered context and focusing solely on the tension of locating oneself in an unfamiliar/uncomfortable environment.

In Dislocation (1-7), Pull and Barley There, visual tension is achieved through pushing/pulling sensations. This is externalized through the extreme physicality of my process. The materials and objects appear fragile and on brink of breaking, yet are fundamentally strong and resilient in their vulnerable situation. There is an ever-present dichotomy between fragility and solidity that transcend human beings psychology and physicality in relationship to their environment. People can further relate to the combination of plaster, metal and bones as components of bodily deconstruction and reconstruction in the medical world – circulating back to hyper sterile and superficial, constructed environments and associated anxieties.