Manufacturer’s Village Collective, 356 Glenwood Avenue, Studio 1F, East Orange, NJ 07017
I’m a contemporary abstract artist whose paintings and wall sculptures explore the meanings that emerge through lived experience and the ways those meanings evolve over time. I’m especially interested in the traces transformation leaves behind, and the significance we attach to them.
Grounded in the belief that we are inseparable from nature, I see the natural world as a reflection of the human experience. Nature transforms, persists, reveals, conceals, destroys, and renews without judgment. As humans, we experience these same processes while continually forming and reforming meaning through memory and emotion. My work inhabits these spaces.
This relationship between transformation and perception extends into the materials themselves. Fire alters paint, ink, wood, and Yupo—a synthetic substrate—leaving permanent marks, texture, and evidence of passage.
I’m drawn to the paradox of using Yupo to create organic sculptural forms that evoke flora, detritus, and weathering from natural elements. Fire scorches and sculpts the Yupo until it occupies an ambiguous space between the manufactured and the organic, challenging viewers’ perception of materiality.
While my process is guided by intention, fire behaves according to its own nature, introducing an unpredictability that can never be fully anticipated or repeated. I welcome this uncertainty. It requires me to work in conversation with the material, allowing transformation to be an active participant in the making of my work.
Rather than offering fixed narratives, my work invites contemplation and evokes emotion. I create spaces for reflection, where viewers might encounter questions rather than conclusions.
Ultimately, my work reflects a belief that beauty is not found in perfection or resolution, but in the spaces where transformation unfolds, traces endure, and meaning continues to evolve.
Rachel is a visual artist working out of her New Jersey studio in Manufacturers Village—a collective of 60+ artists, and the hub of Garden State Arts Weekend.
She had her first solo exhibition in 2022, and regularly exhibits her work in Brooklyn, NYC, and New Jersey. Her paintings and wall sculptures are in private collections throughout the
United States.
[Coming Soon]