Studio Abandon, 2011-16, shipping crate, wood, paint, CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent lamp), and other construction materials. Courtesy the artist.
Studio Abandon (detail), 2011-16, shipping crate, wood, paint, CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent lamp), and other construction materials. Courtesy the artist.
Photo: Kuo-Heng Huang
Studio Abandon is a 1/5th scale replica of Brian Caverly’s studio in Ridgewood, Queens, constructed inside of a shipping container. Made with breathtaking exactitude, this miniature studio is rendered nearly empty. Instead of artworks, only traces of what may have been created there remain. The work is autobiographical, reflecting not only Caverly’s personal workspace but his day job in which he builds artwork shipping crates. With its interior instantly familiar to artists and people who work with them, the sculpture brings to mind Queens’ growing appeal to artists on the hunt for affordable studio space as rent skyrockets in other boroughs. In just a few years, rapid development in the region might make a space like this a thing of the past in New York City.
Brian Caverly received an MFA in Sculpture from the Virginia Commonwealth University (2004). He has completed public commissions for Cornell University (2015) and the State University of New York at Albany (2000), and has exhibited his work at many venues in New York including the Guggenheim Museum (2013), Pleasant View Art Festival (2013), Kingsborough Community College (2012 and 2011), Wayfarers (2012), University Art Museum, State University of New York at Albany (2011), Rural Jurors Arts Festival (2011), Emergency Arts (2006), and Kim Foster Gallery (2005). He is currently Adjunct Professor of Art at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn.