About
Padyn Humble is a sculptor from Montana whose practice reinterprets the intention of our cultural symbols to construct meaning through a queer perspective. Inspiration stems from various influences like old country music, pop culture, kitsch, and surrealist aesthetics. In May 2022, he earned his MFA and was awarded International Sculpture Center’s ‘Outstanding Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture’ and was featured in Sculpture Magazine February 2023. Summer of 2023, he was a resident at Wassaic Project in Upstate New York. He has been an active artist since 2014 and is now working in Berlin, Germany, where he is a mediator for the Boros Foundation. Currently, he is investigating video in tandem with his fabricated objects.
Statement
My practice is an opportunity to dissect social structures that validate rigid behavior while weeding out patterns that no longer fit. In doing so, I expose the nuances that exist at the intersection of identity, romance, and sexuality. The rugged individualism and cowboy romanticism of growing up in the rural American West shapes my understanding of queerness as an opposition to inherited social expectations. I often utilize the Cowboy as an alter ego to characterize themes of desire, queer adaptation, privilege, and historic masculinity.
Drawing from the visual tradition of trompe l'oeil and stage props with cartoon exaggeration, my work attempts to unmask the camp inside the myth - seeking the sensual, sexual, and absurd through a sincere surrealism. I transform materials through illusion and replication as a camouflage technique to counteract the assumptions of tradition. My practice challenges the language and images of these coded environments by highlighting the consequences that arise when these expectations converge. Further visual language is formed through old country music, kitsch, ‘masculine’ aesthetics, and simulated realities. Fragmenting and contrasting the formal devices of my work suggests that the parameters of these systems are unfixed and subject to change. My studio encompasses sculpture and installation by employing multiple components like object fabrication, assemblage, painting, video, and collage.
Email: studio.padyn@gmail.com
Instagram: @padyn