Meet the founders:
Devra Freelander (1990-2019) was a sculptor, a printmaker, a video artist, and a bubbling fountain of positivity who lived and worked in Brooklyn, NY. Her work explores geology and climate change from a millennial and ecofeminist perspective. Apart from her self-described superpower of “having a car,” she was a supreme schmoozer, an elusive chanteuse, and a founding member of MATERIAL GIRLS. She participated in the Sculpture Space Residency (2019), Women’s Studio Workshop Residency (2018), Arctic Circle Residency (2017), Socrates Sculpture Park Emerging Artist Fellowship (2017), Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Residency (2016-2017), and the Virginia Commonwealth University Summer Studio Program (2013). Freelander received her MFA from Rhode Island School of Design and her BA from Oberlin College.
Hilliary Gabryel is a sparkle queen living and working in Queens, NY, whose secret powers include cat burglar strength and flexibility. Her work is aspirational, echoing the immediacy of the consumerist market and commenting on luxury and feminine expectations. Radiating positivity and generosity, she is a founding member of MATERIAL GIRLS and co-founder of the interdisciplinary Ridgewood, Queens project space ERA VI VII VI (2014-2016). Her work has been shown in New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Austin, TX; Minnesota, MN; Richmond, VA. Residencies & awards include the Vermont Studio Center Fellowship, the Wassaic Project, and ASMBLY Session #1. She received her BFA Magna Cum Laude and Post-Baccalaureate Certificate from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2013.
Rachael Starbuck is a material alchemist with mermadian locks who lives and works in Austin, TX. Her work operates with tactile erotics— thin skins and fluid bodies negotiating the space between distance and proximity and pressing against porous boundaries. With incredible patience and kindness in all situations, she is a co-founder of the nomadic curatorial collective Partial Shade, and has been a resident at ACRE Projects, The Contemporary Artists Center at Woodside, The Wassaic Project and The Vermont Studio Center. Starbuck has shown work in Richmond, VA; Providence, RI; Chicago, IL; Austin, TX; Houston, TX; New York, NY; and London, UK. She received her MFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Austin in 2017 and her BFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2011.
Cameron Cameron is a stick-and-poke connoisseur who lives in Los Angeles, CA and is sometimes described as “funny af”. Cameron uses sculptural interventions to compensate for generic imagery, and questions how the mundane may represent the feeling of loss or longing around the disorder of the day-to-day. A sorceress who can turn banal objects into magical ones, she has participated in Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Ox-Bow School of Art, Grin City Collective Residency, and the Art Students League of New York. She received her BFA from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014, attended Virginia Commonwealth University Summer Studio Program in 2015 and received an MFA from UCLA in 2018.
Claire Lachow is an artist, writer, meme curator, and high-level harvester of office supplies. Her work maps connections between language, bodies, and ideology, exploring how the resulting constellation is objectified and intensified in technology. She is the recipient of a 2019 Red Bull Arts Detroit residency & fellowship. Selected exhibitions include IRL @ MoHA, the Governors Island Art Fair, Super Dutchess, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Local Host Gallery, and Schema Projects. In addition to being an editing magician who turns words into gold, she is the author of a 2019 chapbook “Flat World”. Her artwork and writing have been published in Contango Journal, Foundations Magazine, and the Atlas Review. Lachow received a BA from Oberlin College and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Gracelee Lawrence’s work deals with relationships between food, the body, and technology. A sculpture savant with a Mona Lisa smile, she has attended twenty residency programs internationally and opened her first solo show in New York at Thierry Goldberg in May 2019. Recent exhibitions include Postmasters Gallery, Greenpoint Terminal Gallery, SPRING/BREAK Art Fair, and The Wassaic Project. Lawrence is a 3D printing wizard with a particular talent for maintaining powerful serene vibes in any situation. She was a 2019 Jerome Fellow at Franconia Sculpture Park, a 2016-17 Luce Scholars Fellow, a recipient of the 2015 UMLAUF Prize, 2013 Eyes Got It Prize, and the 2011-12 Ella Fountain Pratt Emerging Artist Grant. She is an enthusiastic dancer, a lifelong horsewoman, and an aspiring indoor gardener. She received her MFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Austin and BA from Guilford College.