BIO

Julie Schenkelberg is a Cleveland-based sculptor and installation artist whose work transforms discarded industrial materials, architectural fragments, domestic objects, and cast forms into immersive environments and sculptural assemblages. Her large-scale installations are shaped by her extensive travel throughout the United States and internationally, as well as an often-nomadic working process. She frequently relocates for extended periods to construct projects in different cities, gathering materials and researching the architecture, history, and atmosphere of each location.

Working across sculpture, drawing, and site-specific installation, Schenkelberg investigates memory, ruin, sacred space, transformation, the unconscious, and what lies beyond ordinary perception. Deep history and overlapping timelines affect her work, connecting ancient civilizations, the histories of buildings and cities, family memory, and the present moment. Her long engagement with spiritual traditions, sacred architecture, symbolism, and tarot informs the surfaces, construction, and atmosphere of her installations. She gathers materials from scrap yards, construction sites, abandoned buildings, estate sales, and family collections, altering and combining them to release forgotten histories and create spaces of remembrance, transition, and healing.

Schenkelberg’s practice is also shaped by her 18 years of professional experience as a scenic painter for theater. Her knowledge of fabrication, illusion, surface, and architectural space allows her to construct immersive works that respond directly to their surroundings.

Her work has been presented nationally and internationally at institutions and venues including the Mattress Factory, Museum of Arts and Design, NADA Miami, Asya Geisberg Gallery, The Sculpture Center, Grunwald Gallery, and the SiTE-LAB collective. She received the Efroymson Contemporary Arts Fellowship, a Harpo Foundation Grant, and the ArtPrize Installation Juried Award, and projects involving her work have received support through four National Endowment for the Arts grants. Her residencies include Yaddo, Art Omi, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Red Bull Arts Detroit, and international programs in Italy, Norway, France, and Spain. She has been represented by Asya Geisberg Gallery in New York since 2010.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I create sculptures and installations that uncover beauty, meaning, and layered histories within the material remains of post-industrial landscapes. Using discarded industrial materials, architectural fragments, and once-revered domestic objects, I construct immersive environments that unearth forgotten histories and regenerate lost beauty. I work through frieze-like wall sculptures, drawings, and large-scale site-specific installations, gathering materials from scrap yards, construction sites, abandoned buildings, estate sales, and family collections. These objects carry traces of the buildings, cities, labor, and lives that preceded them. I often cut invasively into buildings and furniture, make castings of architectural and domestic objects, and combine fragile materials such as fabric, china, and plaster with rusted metal, concrete, marble, and construction debris. Through this process, familiar objects are altered and their energy transformed. When working in a new location, I research its architecture and history and incorporate materials particular to that place. Deep history and overlapping timelines affect my work, connecting ancient civilizations, industrial ruins, family memory, and the present. Each installation becomes a reverent excavation and a new story of remembrance, transition, and healing. My practice is informed by sacred architecture, early religions, alchemical symbolism, mystical geometry, Jungian theory, and tarot. The merging of these references reflects my interest in the interconnectedness of history, place, and culture. I am drawn to the unconscious, the unseen, and what may exist beyond ordinary perception. Symbols and spiritual traditions shape the surfaces, construction, and atmosphere of my installations, allowing them to function as portals to the unknown. Through the transformation of damaged and discarded materials, I seek to create places of sacred arrival—spaces where the past can be encountered, reimagined, and carried into another state.

**Gathering glass material in Detroit.**