Bridget Purcell

IG: @ bridgetapurcell

Artist Statement:

My work utilizes painterly language and sculptural experimentation to explore a variety of themes and references, particularly in relation to consumer culture, contemporary landscape, design, and psychology. I am interested in the relationship between consumer references and psychological reactions to contemporary culture, which often expresses itself as a fractured, overwhelming, and oversaturated landscape. I gravitate towards bright, acidic colors that refer back to the language of advertisements, packaging, and products, and I often utilize repetition as a visual strategy. I’m interested in obsessive repetition as a means to reflect on a culture that is literally filled with things, both material and digital, and to explore the psychological implications of these systems.

I often utilize installation or collage techniques to represent the complex and at times disorienting nature of these experiences. Though my work is often in conversation with the anxious and fragmented nature of our culture, I am also interested in the therapeutic qualities inherent to repetitive making and the meditative quality these acts can have. My work seeks to explore the ways we often attempt to find comfort, even while dealing with topics like stress, loss, and cultural excess. Ultimately, my work is an attempt to navigate through a complex landscape, one that is often stress-inducing and confusing, filled with webs of color or piles of objects, spilling out and repeating.

Bio:

Bridget Purcell is a visual artist who lives and works in Philadelphia. She earned a BFA in painting, drawing, and art history from Tyler School of Art and an MFA in Multi-Disciplinary Visual Studies from Washington University in St. Louis. She has worked as an arts professional for the Sam Fox School of Washington University, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the National Liberty Museum, and her art work has been shown in Philadelphia, St. Louis, Chicago, and Rome, Italy. She has published works of art writing with the Art Blog, the St. Claire, NAPOLEON, and Title Magazine.