2020 Faculty Biennial Profile: Betsy Alwin

Meet the artists of the 2020 MCAD Faculty Biennial

I consider the objects and events that fill our days as much sculpture material as clay or metal. As a maker, I think about how these elements can be manipulated and distilled not merely as representation, but as experience, sensation, and idea. The objects that are represented in my work fulfill this, in part, because they create a foundation for tactility and familiarity. Process and craft have been a way for me to examine material as a carrier of meaning. This has led me to ask, “How can form, texture, and material create affect? How might my work convey existential concerns that have developed over time?”

My current body of work approaches these problems in a series of mixed-media sculptures that use lace patterns to convey strength through delicate form. Cast objects take the shape of tools, architectural components, infrastructure, and the human body. When beginning this series of work, tools and motifs from the built environment were used as metaphors for the body because they are intrinsically structural, substantial, and stable. The introduction of the body is a logical progression to referencing the dichotomy of resilience and entropy within the human condition. Industrial materials such as rebar, wood, foam, and plaster further contextualize these forms while creating a dialogue with the built environment.

Surface, color, and texture play a large role conceptually in my work. I choose to work with certain colors, specifically blues with the ceramic forms, because they heighten the surface texture and form of the objects. The blue and white refers to the structural line-work of blueprint drawing as well as the tradition of blue and white ceramic ware. As sensuous compositions, the mixed-media sculptures play with expectations. Rebar, normally a hidden structural material, creates a visually tactile line within the compositions. Situations like these spark the imagination and create a space for thinking about these materials in our every-day and how their performance in sculpture convey questions about longevity and consequence. 

About Betsy Alwin

Betsy Alwin lives and works in Minnetrista, MN. She attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and holds an MFA from Illinois State University and a BFA in Sculpture and a BA in Spanish language from Minnesota State University. Her work has been exhibited widely, including the Berkshire Botanical Gardens (Mass MoCA); the National Botanic Gardens in Washington D.C.; AIR Gallery, New York; The Phipps Center, Hudson, WI; The Morrison Gallery, University of Minnesota, Morris; the Waiting Room Gallery, Edina, MN; and Rubine Red Gallery in Palm Springs, CA. Public commissions include sculptures at the Onoden Elementary School in Tokyo, Japan; Franconia Sculpture Park in Shafer, MN; and Silverwood Park in St. Anthony, MN. She is the recipient of numerous awards including a 2017 Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Alwin recently served as co-curator with Steve Locke for the exhibition Distance: Works on Paper at Dorsky Gallery in Long Island City, NY and as a juror for the Silverwood Park Call for Sculpture. Alwin is a member of the Minneapolis collective Rosalux Gallery and is represented by Rubine Red Gallery.