RACHEL MICA WEISS

Rachel Mica Weiss (b. Rockville, MD, 1986) is a sculptor and installation artist based in the Hudson Valley. The artist's work reconstitutes various boundaries—architectural, topographical, and psychological—to demonstrate their impact upon us. Her sculptures, often scaled to the human body, combine the visual language of textiles with the density of stone and cast forms—components that balance uneasily, vie for dominance, or are inextricably intertwined. Weiss’s work draws attention to the constraints within our physical and psychological spaces, asking us to reimagine those so-called barriers as flexible, passable, porous.

Her thread installation practice is rooted in the craft of weaving—its technical processes, historical uses, and relationships to architecture. Using an environment’s unique architectural elements as framework, the artist creates lurching architectural interventions that draw upon textiles’ historical use as a means to divide and control space. Hand-strung on site, in a fashion mimicking the warping of a loom, these diaphanous walls of tension confront the viewer with an unexpected strength: these super-saturated planes of color control viewers’ space and movements, engendering feelings of vulnerability and underscoring the laborious processes of their fabrication. By interrupting natural passageways or highlighting existing architectural elements, Weiss aims to bring attention to the constraints within our physical and psychological spaces, and in so doing, shift them.

Weiss earned a BA in psychology from Oberlin College, an MFA in sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute. She is the recipient of: an Investing in Professional Artists Grant from the Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments (2020) and a San Francisco Foundation Murphy and Cadogan Fellowship (2011); Weiss was named a Hopper Prize finalist (2019). She has been invited to the Fountainhead Residency, Miami, FL (2020), funded by the Heinz Endowments; 100 W Corsicana Artist and Writer Residency, Corsicana, TX (2020), funded by a Navarro Council for the Arts Grant; Lux Art Institute Residency, Encinitas, CA (2018); and Marble House Project Residency, Dorset, VT (2015), among other residencies.

Weiss has been the subject of seven solo exhibitions at the following venues: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA (2019) ; Lux Art Institute, San Diego, CA (2018); LMAK Gallery, New York, NY (2018, 2017); Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, MA (2015); Fridman Gallery, New York, NY (2014); the San Francisco Arts Commission, San Francisco, CA (2013). Weiss has created public artworks for venues worldwide, including for the US Embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; Airbnb, Seattle, WA; and The Pittsburgh International Airport

Her first institutional commission, The Wild Within, is now on view at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, MA. Her largest permanent installation to date, Boundless Topographies, funded by the Gates Foundation, was recently installed at the University of Washington’s Hans Rosling Center for Population Health in Seattle. Weiss’ work is included in several public and private collections such as: the US Embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; Microsoft Corporate Collection; Boston Consulting Group Corporate Collection; Media Math Corporate Collection; Sloan Kettering Memorial Cancer Center, as well as the collections of Francis J. Greenberger and Beth Rudin deWoody.