Alexis Granwell invites us into a psychological space. In past projects the artist has used printmaking, drawing, and sculpture to map metaphysical landscapes, translating moments of ecstasy or despair into abstract compositions that explore the complex structures of an interior geography. Her newest work takes this investigation a step further, creating a transformative environment in which viewers have a participatory relationship with her subject. Freestanding sculptures take over an entire room that Granwell has altered with paint and subtle architectural devices.

Her installation has the loose form of a fort. Like most forts, it is made from materials scavenged from the artist’s surroundings. Building supplies, paint, discarded crates, and weathered branches come together in precarious arrangements that function like large three-dimensional drawings. Granwell makes paper casts of trash and architectural elements as well, and these litter the site as shadows of their former selves. Her skeletal structures are scaled to the size of the human body, giving them immediacy and presence.

We get the sense, as we walk through the passageways set up in this makeshift haven, that we are both intruder and guest. Intruder, because what lies before us is in many respects the physical manifestation of a personal psychology: the architectural renderings of Granwell’s past projects come to life in this environment. But guest too, because the objects open themselves up to empathy through their distant familiarity. The inventive forms and their inherent fragility mimic the strange beauty of what we ourselves have left behind: collections of urban refuse the artist passes on her way to the studio have given her inspiration in their strange and spontaneous beauty. The exhibition title, Broken, to Bring Forth, hints at the metaphorical implications of these materials; through their impoverishment and reincarnation, Granwell presents us with vessels for examining our relationship to brokenness and renewal, to the cyclical nature of undoing and becoming.