Venus Rising, 2024
Painted aluminum (cast bed sheets and dining plates)
108 x 51 x12 inches
Courtesy of the artist

Venus Rising, 2024
Painted aluminum (cast bed sheets and dining plates)
108 x 51 x12 inches
Courtesy of the artist

Venus Rising, 2024
Painted aluminum (cast bed sheets and dining plates)
108 x 51 x12 inches
Courtesy of the artist


Photo ©Philippe Cheng

VADIS TURNER

Venus Rising

Venus Rising at LongHouse debuts Turner’s series of abstract outdoor sculptures informed by Venus, the Roman goddess of love, as a reclining nude. Instead of seductively lounging in her place, Venus now stands upright as a stirred and emboldened grid. Liberated from the home, like a weaving gone wild, the work is composed of bedsheets and dining plates cast in aluminum. Bright red, this series feminizes the grid as a “figure” transcending the horizon.

Vadis Turner (b. 1977, Nashville, TN) creates abstract textile-driven sculptures and mixed media works that challenge the narratives of feminine archetypes. In her practice, Turner encourages the misbehaviors and transcendence of domestic materials. Engaging the grid as a poetic structure, bedsheets and mineral wool are given a new voice. Becoming emboldened and mercurial structures, many works are titled after maligned female figures from classical folklore, literature and mythology. Turner’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Arts and Design (NY), Brooklyn Museum (NY), 21C Museum (KY), The Bunker Artspace (FL), Kentucky Museum of Arts and Crafts (KY), Tennessee State Museum (TN), Huntsville Museum of Art (AL), the Hunter Museum of American Art (TN) and the University of Alabama, Birmingham (AL). Upcoming projects include Zuckerman Museum (GA), Frist Art Museum (TN) and Taubman Museum of Art (VA). She received a BFA and MFA from Boston University and currently teaches at Vanderbilt University.

Vadis Turner Venus Rising is made possible by the generous support of Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo and the Dorothea Leonhardt Fund at The Communities Foundation of Texas, Inc. and project support from The Jenni Crain Foundation.

Venus Rising, 2024
Painted aluminum (cast bed sheets and dining plates)
108 x 51 x12 inches
Courtesy of the artist