Tunnels of darkness illuminate vessels with light in Shatter the dark: a light at the end of the tunnel.
Reception: July 10th 6pm - 8pm
On View: July 10th, 2026 - August 15th, 2026
Artist (s): Joe Grubb
Location: Kiosk Gallery at Utility Works (32 E Baltimore Ave)
Gallery Hours: Wednesday - Saturday, noon - 6pm
I started making lamps with black sculpture clay and quickly realized black clay does not transfer or reflect light. A friend suggested white porcelain, which catches light and transfers it wonderfully. I hung a black lamp over a porcelain vessel and found emotional resonance with the combination.
I am a shining vessel unaware of the source of my own light.
I am a dark vessel of heat illuminating a cold, remote object.
Gaze into the tunnel of darkness.
See the light as it escapes you.
Feel the cracks in the foundation of your self-awareness.
About the Artists:
My artistic life is a mining operation of faulty memories in dark tunnels of someone else’s creation. Sifting through the detritus of decades of the delirium of trauma, substance abuse and mental illness for the resonant shards of reality and unreality that can be distilled into an object that I can hold against my face and say “this, THIS is real. This happened.”
My favorite things that inform my work are biology and the natural world, architecture and the semi-permanent built world, and the space that each of us carves out to inhabit in between.
This is my first show.
