Outlaw is a sculptor who often creates works using repetitive forms such as pencils, puff pastries, fruitcakes, plumber’s pipes, and caramel. She will be will be casting sculptures made out of caramel in the kitchens of Johnson and Wales University with the assistance of students from both schools.

Gay Outlaw, an artist from San Francisco, uses common materials in surprising ways. Through insistent experimentation with the formal vocabulary of Minimalism, the artist extends the process of creating to include the viewer’s perceptual experience. Outlaw transforms physical material into new apparitions – rendering known materials into surprising and delightful objects – not unlike the transformation from sow’s ear to silk purse.

After receiving her undergraduate degree in French from the University of Virginia, Outlaw studied to be a chef at the Ecole de Cuisine la Verenne in Paris. After that, her creative muse led her to study photography at the International Center of Photography in New York. She quickly realized that she was trying to capture the sculptural nature of the objects she photographed and so began to concentrate on making sculpture also. All of this training is now combined into her studio practice where she feels equally at ease with puff pastry and molded caramel, as she does with tiny photo collages and extruded clay.

For the exhibition at the Halsey Gallery, Gay Outlaw will be in residence for the week preceding the opening creating a caramel sculpture in the kitchens of Johnson and Wales University. She will also be creating various other works onsite, including an extruded clay piece. Outlaw is interested in having the gallery function as an extension of her studio.

Minimalist forebears Sol LeWitt, Carl Andre, Donald Judd, et. al. have drawn our attention to the formal elegance of grids and cubes, yet their works have an inherent sterility. Outlaw’s work brings a sense of whimsy to the proceedings, without veering into parody. Outlaw is more in line with Eva Hesse’s post-minimalist sensibility, in her emphasis on the sensual experience of the viewer. Through her choices of material and process, Outlaw borrows from the formal dictates of Minimalism while inflecting her objects with humor, wit,

~ Mark Sloan, Curator