Here, we ask designers to take a selfie and give us an inside look at their life.
Age: 27
Occupation: Artist.
Instagram: @shainatabak
Hometown: Queens.
Studio location: Brooklyn.
Describe what you make: I make sculptures that use craft and function as references.
The most important thing you’ve designed to date: The closest I feel I get to “designing” is when creating tools and jigs that are specifically created to do niche and one-off tasks. These are really satisfying moments of making a piece. It can be slapping together the most simple but effective version of a plywood jig for welding metal, or thinking of a clamping strategy for gluing together my organic spirally wooden forms.
Describe the problem your work solves: I prefer to generate moments of interpretation, association and uncertainty rather than solve problems in my work.
Describe the project you are working on now: My solo show “On Object Tendency” just opened at Superhouse Gallery a few days ago. It’s a series of works that focus on material transformation and subverting materials from their common uses. I’m also drawn to flattening three-dimensional objects while creating secure structure within thin and fragile systems.
A new or forthcoming project we should know about: I will have work included in a group show at Jack Chiles gallery opening in late October. I’ve been interested in experimenting with more representational imagery, so the piece I’m making will expand on that.
What you absolutely must have in your studio: Headphones, chocolate, and water.
What you do when you’re not working: Gallery hopping, long train rides to far corners of the city, seeing my friends perform, cooking new recipes.
Sources of creative envy: Envy shouldn’t have a place in creativity. I’m very inspired by certain friends who are also artists and craftspeople: Joyce Lin, Marc Librizzi, and Ryan Decker to name a few. I’m inspired when dedication and inventiveness are evident in a person’s work.
The distraction you want to eliminate: TikTok.
Concrete or marble? Both can be tacky or beautiful depending on how they’re used.
High-rise or townhouse? Townhouse.
Remember or forget? Definitely remember.
Aliens or ghosts? Ghosts.
Dark or light? Dark.
