MFTA Gallery | Boundary Layer by Kate Rusek

 Materials for the Arts (MFTA) is pleased to present Boundary Layer, a solo exhibition by MFTA Artist-in-Residence Kate Rusek, on view now through August 2, 2024 at the Materials for the Arts Gallery. Reclaiming what it means to call something trash, Rusek’s creative practice engages intimately with the discarded. From practical materials like hard plastics and nylon, to more unconventional arts media, such as aluminum blinds, mascara wands, and microplastic dust, Rusek’s work transmutes ‘waste’ into maximalist organic structures that interrogate assigned value, material narrative, and the binary between what’s ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural.’ As Materials for the Arts’ Artist-in-Residence, Rusek had unlimited access to the city program’s 35,000-square-foot warehouse, as well as a stipend and free exclusive studio space, since starting her residency in February 2024.

The exhibition’s title, Boundary Layer, references an ecological term for the fluid space that interacts with a surface such as water or moving air which bears optimal conditions for life to thrive. In a similar manner, MFTA’s warehouse, full of discarded materials, creates the optimal conditions for creativity to thrive in infinite expressions. Filled with both geometric and organic shapes, Boundary Layer explores the delicate balance between nature and artifice.

Kate Rusek, ‘Desire as Colonial Organism’ (2024), reclaimed vinyl, nylon, discarded acrylic, pre-consumer mascara wands, anodized aluminum, vintage lead crystal and glass 50 x 72 x 10 in. Photo by Anna Droddy.