We welcome Sophia Black to the Emerging Artist Gallery!  Sophia has work on exhibit from July 25 - October 14.

Artist Statement

'I am from Grand Island, NY and recently graduated with my BFA in studio art at Nazareth University. I will be going back to Nazareth in the fall to start working towards my masters in art therapy. Art has shaped my life and it has always been there to help me process all of the challenges and changes that life comes with. Becoming an art therapist has been a dream of mine for most of my life and I’m excited to use art as a tool to help others in the way it has helped me. During my time at Nazareth, my professors, Stefan Zoller and Ron Netsky, challenged me to think more deeply about the work I was making. Their guidance helped me create art that can communicate, ask questions, and leave room for interpretation. Rather than offering one clear answer, I want my work to have room for viewers to bring their own experiences and interpretations instead of searching for what I intend it to mean.

Each piece continues to change the more I spend time with it and once it leaves me, I believe that it belongs to the viewer's experience just as much as my own. My current work explores fruit as both personal and symbolic forms, using its familiarity to invite reflection and connection. Universally recognized, fruit carries associations of nourishment, fertility, and decay. Through this, I investigate themes of worth, vulnerability, and transformation, using fruit as a way to engage the body without directly depicting it.

The forms are often torn open, dripping, and densely composed, emphasizing texture, excess, and a sense of physical presence. I aim to create a tension between beauty and discomfort, while resisting idealized representations. Fruit’s ties to mythology and symbolism expand its meaning beyond the personal, reinforcing its connection to cycles of growth, consumption, and change. My work aims to create a visceral experience that invites viewers into a space of self-reflection, where they can consider their own relationships to beauty, complexity, and self-worth.'