Michelle Thomas Fine Art: A Place for Pichon by Steve Firestone (opening reception)

Opening reception: Friday, April 17, 5-7p
On view through June 26, 2026 at Michelle Thomas Fine Art Gallery + Studio
ARTIST STATEMENT
The sculptures selected for this exhibition span a period of over thirty years. The ephemera of an industrialized world are materials I use consistently though not exclusively. They are reimagined and imbued with a new life once transformed. I invite the viewer to identify the architectural influences in my work. A colleague once described it as Bauhaus Romanticism; I like that phrase. Like a scavenger, I continually collect “stuff” wherever it may appear, rarely being inspired in the moment but trusting that the materials will reveal their potential in the future. When assessing this selection of work, I have observed that some pieces reveal a personality while others reveal a sense of place.
Alongside this group are some examples from my Pandemic Pantry series, not surprisingly created during the Covid Pandemic. We were relatively homebound during that time, a condition that encouraged introspection. There were many stories of people’s newfound interests in pickling, canning, fermenting and creating levains. With that in mind I looked around my studio with fresh eyes, the shelves were packed with boxes of “ingredients” collected over the years. I was inspired to do my own version of “canning” utilizing these somewhat dormant materials. I wondered: what might it be like to walk into a strange pantry, pick a jar off the shelf and try to make sense of what was inside? There was a learning curve to creating something inside a jar or bottle. New tools were needed for a new process and I came away with an appreciation for builders of ships in a bottle! — Steve Firestone, March 2026