Bio:
Kurt Tomerlin (they/he) grew up in a rural, conservative community in a small town in north Texas as the child of a carpenter. Tomerlin started exploring themes of embodiment and gender performance during their B.A. in Gender and Women’s Studies and Studio Art at University of Arizona. They are continuing with this research exploration while pursuing their MFA in Printmaking from University of Iowa. They have shown work in galleries across the United States including in Tucson, AZ, Chicago, IL, Bozeman, MN, Flint, MI, Iowa City, IA and San Juan, PR. They are in the collections of the University of Iowa and Kennesaw State University.
Kurt Tomerlin (they/he) grew up in a rural, conservative community in a small town in north Texas as the child of a carpenter. Tomerlin started exploring themes of embodiment and gender performance during their B.A. in Gender and Women’s Studies and Studio Art at University of Arizona. They are continuing with this research exploration while pursuing their MFA in Printmaking from University of Iowa. They have shown work in galleries across the United States including in Tucson, AZ, Chicago, IL, Bozeman, MN, Flint, MI, Iowa City, IA and San Juan, PR. They are in the collections of the University of Iowa and Kennesaw State University.
Artist Statement:
I learn and unlearn how to man-handle from carpentry guidebooks. Deconstructing and reworking instructional language and didactic images, I adjust existing interpretations and disassemble functional limits. I draw with hammers that are meant to pound.
Holding loosely to tools which should be firm-gripped, I continuously reorient myself to possibilities of becoming. Abstracted bodies expand into formlessness while concrete, directed gestures weigh the work down and position it in place. There’s a sense of heaviness around your ankles, like you’re wearing work boots. I fasten this pressure with humor and levity of expressive mark making, crooked nails, and double entendres that leave you second-guessing. Trying to follow broken logic leaves you uncertain, I let you linger in questioning “how-to” to see which lines you draw.
How you perform a gesture exposes the actions through which our bodies have been built. Tendencies are constructed through the repetition. We must un-fix our bodies, to re-pair our selves. This construction will never cease. Manuals lie to you when they end. Nothing is ever truly fixed1.
1) Fixed /fikst/
a.) Fastened securely in position
b.) Predetermined and not subject or able to be changed
I learn and unlearn how to man-handle from carpentry guidebooks. Deconstructing and reworking instructional language and didactic images, I adjust existing interpretations and disassemble functional limits. I draw with hammers that are meant to pound.
Holding loosely to tools which should be firm-gripped, I continuously reorient myself to possibilities of becoming. Abstracted bodies expand into formlessness while concrete, directed gestures weigh the work down and position it in place. There’s a sense of heaviness around your ankles, like you’re wearing work boots. I fasten this pressure with humor and levity of expressive mark making, crooked nails, and double entendres that leave you second-guessing. Trying to follow broken logic leaves you uncertain, I let you linger in questioning “how-to” to see which lines you draw.
How you perform a gesture exposes the actions through which our bodies have been built. Tendencies are constructed through the repetition. We must un-fix our bodies, to re-pair our selves. This construction will never cease. Manuals lie to you when they end. Nothing is ever truly fixed1.
1) Fixed /fikst/
a.) Fastened securely in position
b.) Predetermined and not subject or able to be changed