STATEMENT
Drawing inspiration from my Catskills garden, I explore connections between the earthly and cosmic realms, intertwining life forms with stones and astronomical motifs. Each piece combines elements of sculpture, painting, and craft. Sculptures are coated with textured compound, suggesting mud-to-stone transformation, then painted with watery pigments that pool and thin across surfaces, accentuating the topography. Paintings are made from pieces of painted canvas sewn together and loosely hung. Their handmade quality is essential—shapes are askew, paint drips, the approach intuitive.
Kite-shaped paintings explore life’s potential and precariousness while furthering the terrestrial-to-celestial metaphor. Hovering between art and craft, object and painting, these works relate to geometric abstraction, the Pattern and Decoration movement, and the history of shaped paintings. By combining memories of kite-making with my artist-father and the quilt patterns of my grandmothers, I align myself with generations of artists and sewers in my family.
BIOGRAPHY
Cadence Giersbach lives and works in New York, NY and Cochecton, NY. Her work has been featured in solo shows at Satchel Projects (New York, NY), Roebling Hall (Brooklyn, NY) and Deitch Projects (New York, NY). Group shows include PS122 (New York, NY), White Columns (New York, NY), Wave Hill (Bronx, NY), MoMA PS1 (Queens, NY), Museo Rufino Tamayo (Mexico City, MX), Brooklyn Museum of Art (Brooklyn, NY), Galerie Faurschou (Copenhagen, DK), Kunsthalle Nürnberg (Nürnberg, DE).
She received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship and a New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Fellowship in Painting and attended residencies at PS122, MacDowell, and Cité Internationale des Arts. Giersbach’s work has been commissioned by Arts for Transit, MTA (Brooklyn, NY), Percent for Art (Queens, NY); the Palladium Co. (West Palm Beach, FL) and is in the public collections of the Albright-Knox (Buffalo, NY), Harvard University (Boston, MA) and the RISD Museum, (Providence, RI).
Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, ArtNet Magazine, and Art Forum, among others. Giersbach earned a BA from Vassar College, an MFA from Rutgers University and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Giersbach was born in New York, NY. She is a studio member at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts.
Born 1966, New York, NY
Lives and works in New York, NY and Cochecton, NY
SOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2025 Tail of the Cosmos, Satchel Projects, New York, NY
2024 Through the Summer Garden, Lake George Arts Project, Lake George, NY
• Anxious Nature, Delaware Valley Arts Alliance Gallery, Narrowsburg, NY
2023 Transcendental Meditation, PS122 Gallery, New York, NY (with Susan Rowe Harrison)
2005 Niagara, Roebling Hall, Brooklyn, NY
2002 Somewhere, Sandroni Rey, Venice, CA
2001 Tropicalia, Roebling Hall, Brooklyn, NY
1999 Homestead, Venetia Kapernekas Fine Arts, New York, NY
1998 Plastic Replicating Garden, Deitch Projects, New York, NY
• Looking-Glass House, Thread Waxing Space Project Room, New York, NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 Primeval Ground, Westbeth, New York, NY
2025 Living Systems, The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York, NY
• Thicket, Overlap Gallery, Newport, RI
2024 Of Flesh and Bones, PS122 Gallery, New York, NY
• How Did We Get Here?, Artport Kingston with the Ely Center, Kingston NY
• Reshaping Abstraction, Concord Arts, Concord, MA
• Counterpointe 11, Norte Maar, Brooklyn, NY (dance performance)
• Orwell’s Garden II, Orwell’s Garden/High Desert Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2023 Mirror Milk, Satchel Projects, New York, NY
• A Light Exists in Spring, Birdhouse Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY
2015 Triacontagon: 30 Years of Artists’ Fellowships, Westbeth Gallery, New York, NY
2008 Repositioning Landscape, Westport Arts Center, Westport, CT
2006 New Work, Usdan Gallery, Bennington College, Bennington, VT
2005 Wasteland, Roebling Hall, Brooklyn, NY
2004 Global Priority, Alternative Space Pool, Seoul, South Korea
2003 Fendi/New Group Auction, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY
• After Matisse/Picasso, MoMa PS1, Queens, NY
2002 Pausing to Shift, Glyndor Gallery, Wave Hill, Bronx, NY
• On Perspective, Galerie Faurschou, Copenhagen, Denmark
2001 Lion, on display with Eternal Egypt, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY
• Operativo, Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico
• Painting/Not Painting, White Columns, New York, NY
2000 Insites, Whitney Museum of American Art at Champion, Stamford, CT
• Reality Bytes: The Look Mediated by the Media, Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany
EDUCATION
1995 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME
1995 MFA, Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts, New Brunswick, NJ
1988 BA, Honors in Art, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
SELECTED AWARDS & RESIDENCIES
2025 The Elizabeth Foundation of the Arts, New York, NY, Studio Member
2023-24 PS122 Studio Program, New York, NY
2023 Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, VA
2005 Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
2002 NYFA Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York, NY
1999 Nordisk Kunstnarsenter, Dalasen, Norway
1997 Pollock Krasner Foundation Fellowship
• W. K. Rose Fellowship for the Creative Arts, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
• MacDowell Residency Fellowship, Peterborough, NH
PUBLIC COMMISSIONS
2007 From Earth to Sky, Myrtle and Wyckoff Avenue Station, Brooklyn, NY, Commissioned by Arts for Transit, MTA
• Tuscan Pastoral, The Siena, Montclair, NJ, Commissioned by Herod and the Township of Montclair
2000 Garden in a School: Impressions of Jackson Heights, I.S. 230, Jackson Heights, NY, Commissioned by NYC Bd. of Ed. & NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs, Percent for Art
• Garden Reverie, Palladium at CityPlace, West Palm Beach, Florida, Commissioned by the Palladium Co.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY
Harvard University, Boston, MA
RISD Museum, Providence, RI
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
B. Amore. “Reshaping Abstraction.” Art New England, March/April, 2024.
Concord Art. Reshaping Abstraction. March, 2024. Catalog
Annmarie Schuetz. “Spring is Beautiful.” The River Reporter, March 21-27, 2024.
Meagan J. Meehan. “Norte Maar’s CounterPointe 11.” Brooklyn Downtown Star, February 29, 2024.
Sandra Bloodworth and William Ayres. New York’s Underground Art Museum: MTA Arts and Design. New York: The Monicelli Press, 2014.
Lee Scharf. “Repositioning The Landscape”. Westport Minuteman, February 7, 2008.
Marvin Heiferman (ed.). City Art: New York’s Percent for Art Program. New York: Merrell, 2005. p.196.
Talk of the Town. The New Yorker, April 11, 2005.
Sheila Pepe. “The Immediacy of Niagara.” Gay City News. Vol. IV, Issue 13. Mar 31-Ap 1, 2005.
Yasufumi Nakamori. Decipher: Hand Painted Digital. 2005. Brochure.
Jennifer McGregor. Pausing to Shift. 2002. Brochure
Leah Ollman. “Dots and Dabs That Cast a Spell” Los Angeles Times, July 5, 2002.
Walter Robinson. “Miami Sun,” ArtNet Magazine, December 19, 2001
Simon Watson. Pioneering Sprit: Colbert Art Walk 2001. 2001. Brochure
Tobias Ostrander. Operativo. 2001. Catalog
Gregory Williams. “Flux Interior.” Interior Design, August 2001. Vol. 72. No. 10.
Holland Cotter. “Art Guide,” The New York Times, May 4, 2001.
Gregory Williams. “New York Critics Picks,” Artforum Online, May 2, 2001.
Joel Engelhardt. “CityPlace: Architect’s 5 Favorite Places” The Palm Beach Post, October 24, 2000.
William Zimmer. “Art: When Daily Life is Examined Closely” New York Times, CT Ed. July 2, 2000.
Erin Barnett. Insites: Interior Spaces in Contemporary Art. June 2000. Catalog.
Ellen Siefermann. Reality Bytes: The Look Mediated by the Media. Brochure April 2000.
Kevin Conley. The New Yorker, October 5, 1998.
Ken Johnson. “Art Guide,” The New York Times, October 2, 1998.
Kevin Conley. The New Yorker, October 6, 1997.
RECORDED ARTIST TALKS
• Elisabeth Condon, interviewer. “Cadence Giersbach at Satchel Projects” June, 2025. LINK
• Valerie Mansi, interviewer. “Cadence Giersbach at DVAA” Radio Catskill WJEFF, April, 2024. AUDIO
• Cadence Giersbach Artist Talk at Lake George Arts Project, July, 2024. YOUTUBE
• Paddy Johnson, host. Art Problems, What to Focus on When You Have Limited Time: An Interview with Cadence Giersbach. Episode 46. January 31, 2024, PODCAST
• Robyn Love, host. Small Things Brought Together, Season 4, Episode 3: Cadence Giersbach. December 6, 2022. YOUTUBE
Cadence Giersbach 