ABOUT
BIOGRAPHY
Austin Casebolt is an American artist who lives and works in Westchester County, New York. His work is frequently characterized by a meticulous design of figure in scene alongside forms as references to allegorical abstraction. His enigmatic compositions provoke emotionally fused surfaces by conjuring light from historically precedented warnings.
Focusing on industrial mining practices and fossil fuel energy sources, his multi-disciplinary work uses drawing, painting, and assemblage sculpture to investigate specific instances of power.
Casebolt navigates themes of energy, ecology, economy, and rural natural resources. His works inherently exist within a desired contradiction, where he exhibits the resulting complexities of neglected histories.
Casebolt received a Masters of Fine Art in Fine Arts from The New School / Parsons School of Design in 2022, and a Bachelors of Arts in Art & Education from Morehead State University in 2017. He is also an Alumni of the Kentucky Governors Scholars Program, Kentucky Governors School for the Arts, and the University of Pikeville’s Booth Scholars Program.
Casebolt’s work has been shown at length in private and public exhibitions. Public exhibitions include; High Noon Gallery, Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery, Shelia C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons 25 East 13th Gallery, Owensboro Museum of Fine Arts, Ralph Center Gallery, Owensboro RiverPark Center, Jones Visual Art Center, Transylvania Morgan Gallery, Webber Art Gallery, Golding-Yang Art Gallery, Kentucky Folk Arts Center, Janice B. Gallery, McCall Art Gallery, the Miller House Mansion and the Western Kentucky Botanical Garden.
For information regarding private exhibitions, contact austincaseboltart@gmail.com
ARTIST STATEMENT
Deep in the heart of the Appalachian mountains, a simple creek flows up a holler near the hillside I call home. We don’t live there now. Not really. Not with our bodies at least. But all of our wandering souls, as corporeal faces, are often drawn to a romanticized version of our rural origin. My journey, along with the nine generations of mountain folks that preceded me, began in the small town in Eastern Kentucky. Home is where I can still feel the impact of how natural resources can grow into an area's largest asset while also functioning as a catalyst for exploitation.
I remain mindful of environmental impacts, yet personally conscientious of the economic and societal dependence upon fossil fuels as a resource and provision, domestically and globally. The work, therefore, dwells in the space of inherent contradiction.
My work uses drawing, painting, and assemblage sculpture to investigate specific instances of power. I mine the depths of archival histories and personhood for raw material. Combining figurative imagery with bituminous coal forms within allegorical abstraction, I activate bituminous coal as a medium. I focus on themes of ecology, economy, and rural natural resources. I refine and exhibit the resultant complexities.