Born in Auckland, New Zealand, Anna Sew Hoy is an artist who lives and works in Los Angeles. In her sculptures, the slowness of the handmade collides with symbols of speedy communication and global junk, to create totemic forms. Sew Hoy is inspired by clay’s history as a material for making ritual and functional objects. When her clay “bodies” are mixed with repurposed bits of consumer culture (in this work, fabric, colored sand and metal), eras collide, so that her sculptures exist in both the past of an ancient medium and our present time. Her sculptures reflect our many encounters with things, from the wearing of one’s favorite sweater, to the contemplation of an object on a pedestal.

Born 1976, Sew Hoy received her MFA from Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY in 2008. With her self-proclaimed disdain for the right-angle, from the “white cube” to office cubicles, Sew Hoy’s work often employs different multiplicities, that juxtapose the organic and synthetic. Focusing on texture and form, Sew Hoy creates her work from both the handmade and readymade, often using industrial materials and processes.