The Sam Fox School Gallery at Washington University in St. Louis is pleased to present “It Is What It Is When It Is,” a solo exhibition of new work from St. Louis-based artist Sterling Lawrence.
The exhibition title, “It Is What It Is When It Is” considers how familiar objects can shift when their function, material, and context are changed. A birdhouse, a light box, and a sheet of paper become sculptural propositions in raw aluminum, stripped of the conventions that ordinarily tell us what they are and how they should be understood.
At the center of the exhibition is the tension between permanence and circumstance. The phrase “it is what it is” suggests certainty; the addition of “when it is” introduces time, context, and the possibility of change. Lawrence’s objects occupy that space between the fixed and the fleeting, taking on meaning through their surroundings and through the experience of the viewer.
By reproducing recognizable forms in unexpected materials, Lawrence creates a sense of estrangement that makes the familiar newly available for consideration. Surfaces reflect light and movement, while seemingly straightforward objects open onto associations of shelter, exposure, absence, and possibility.
The work is informed by a period of profound personal change for the artist, as Lawrence enters fatherhood against a backdrop of an increasingly unsettled world. Together, these forces create an exhibition concerned with what remains, what changes, and what an object—or an experience—can mean in a particular moment.
“It Is What It Is, When It Is” is curated by Jeff Robinson, Gallery Director for the Sam Fox School Gallery at Washington University in St. Louis.