Plaza Mirage II

Theresa Sterner & zach trow

DECember 07 — 21, 2019

Theresa Sterner and Zach Trow work collaboratively to articulate the landscape of Isamu Noguchi’s commissioned public plazas through fragments and facsimiles, exploring themes of leisure vs. labor, maintenance as ritual, and the void. They are interested in the functional life these public spaces serve to the surrounding community as well the evidence of daily use. Through images and observations, an installation of sculptures are presented that tow the line between model, monument, and utilitarian object.

This project was made possible with support from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant and Yucca Valley Material Lab.

Theresa Sterner and Zach trow

Theresa Sterner and Zach Trow are sculptors living in Los Angeles who have been working collaboratively since 2016.  They have been dual artists-in-residence at Coast Time, in Lincoln City, Oregon, The Cooper Union in New York, and at the Yucca Valley Material Lab, and in 2020 they will be residents at Taller Los Guayabos in Guadalajara, Mexico.  They have given public lectures at the Cooper Union in New York and Central Park Gallery in Los Angeles, and have exhibited collaboratively at the Brand Library and Art Center in Glendale, CA and the SPRING BREAK Art Show in Los Angeles.  

Theresa received a BFA in Metals/Jewelry and Sculpture from the University of Oregon in 2009 and an MFA in Sculpture from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia in 2014.   Her work has been exhibited at A.I.R. Gallery and Present Company, both in New York; the Every Woman Biennial, Other Places Art Fair, GAIT, and Tiger Strikes Asteroid and in Los Angeles; the Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia; SOMA in Mexico City; and various venues in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Portland, Oregon.  She has also participated in residencies at Ox-Bow School of Art in Saugatuck, Michigan, PLAYA in Summerlake, Oregon, and at the Stripa Historic Iron Ore Mine in Bergslagen, Sweden.

Zach earned dual degrees in Japanese and Sculpture at the University of Oregon in 2009, and his MFA in Sculpture at Hunter College in 2014. In 2013, he completed a study abroad program at the The Universität der Künste Berlin, Germany and mounted a two-person exhibition at Greusslich Contemporary. In 2014, Zach was awarded a full scholarship to SOMA Summer Mexico City, and exhibited at Bikini Wax during his stay in Mexico. During the academic year of 2015/2016, he was awarded the Fountainhead Teaching Fellowship at Virginia Commonwealth University in Sculpture and in the fall of 2017, Zach was a fellowship recipient at Lighthouse Works on Fishers Island, NY.  His solo exhibitions include Reynolds Gallery in Richmond, Virginia, and Doppler Gallery in Portland, OR and he has participated in exhibitions in Philadelphia, New York, and Los Angeles.