I express myself through poetic use of cities and the built environment. I appropriate this built environment to create a bridge between the urban and domestic, which in turn can become a catalyst for political, and environmental discourse and social practice. My aim is to unravel the way we view authority by revealing various truths about spirituality, protest, urban ecosystems, collective memory, and bad-faith policy. I have developed a practice through drawing, sculpture, video, installation, and performance. I also actively add to a large collection of found objects from the street to make art with; like traffic cones, fire hydrants, street signs, windows, and more. Using windows in my practice became an important symbol to begin with conceptually and I began to throw rocks and mend them using this visual language of necessity. For me, the breaking of a window is an event of stark violence proceeding the beginning of a healing process.
I am also a trumpet player, I use the instrument for performance art where I improvise the trumpet, improvising my body. This series of actions and reactions become a dance with the horn, where noise and jazz exist simultaneously. This is a way for me to channel my ancestors and activate my own installation during an exhibition.
The “city” is malleable material, you can transform it, abuse it, exploit it, critique it, subvert it, or change it.
Curriculum Vitae
Justin Sterling - Justintoart.com - sterlingjstn@gmail.com
Justin Sterling (b. 1992 Houston, Texas) - Is a New York City-based visual artist and trumpet player. His primary medium is an archive of reclaimed municipal objects; through recycling and civil disobedience he appropriates the built environment to create an often overlooked world within the urban and domestic. He aims to unravel the way we view authority by revealing various truths about spirituality, protest, urban ecosystems, collective memory, and bad-faith policy, to craft new stories beyond our present moment. Sterlings’ practice meanders through drawing, sculpture, video, installation, and performance.
Education:
2018 Alumni of Interdisciplinary Art and Theory Program, New York
2017 MFA Fine Arts, The New School: Parsons School of Design, New York (‘15-’17)
2015 BFA Fine Arts, University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas (‘10-’15)
2014 Independent Study and Art History Research, University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”, Urbino, Italy
2010 Graduate Lamar High School, Texas Arrowhead Scholar, Houston, Texas
Solo Exhibitions:
2022 San Diego Museum of Art, Chapel of the Rocks, San Diego, CA
2022 RedBud Gallery, Windows of Opportunity, Houston, TX
2020 Cathouse Proper, Orange Chapel, Brooklyn, New York
2019 Parallel Performance Space, Solo Performance, Brooklyn, New York
2019 The Olympia Project, Broken Windows, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
2018 Freight Gallery, Images of Power, San Antonio, Texas
2017 Our Neon Foe Gallery, A Growing Boy Needs His Lunch, Sydney, Australia
Group Exhibitions:
2023 Halsey McCay Gallery, The Glass Show, East Hampton, NY
2023 Someday Gallery, Trio Exhibition, A Gathering in the Making, New York, NY
2023 Soul of Nations Foundation, Duo Exhibition, Kinstallations, New York, NY
2022 Cathouse Proper, Cul-de-sac, Brooklyn, NY
2022 LatinX Project NYU, Building Radical Soil, New York, NY
2021 Someday Gallery, Entrainment, Chinatown, New York
2021 Canada Gallery, The Thick Stream, TriBeCa, New York
2021 Museo Municipal de Tossa de Mar, L’Arbre i la Roca, Tossa de Mar, Spain
2020 MoMA PS1, Marking Time: Art In The Age of Mass Incarceration, Queens, New York
2019 The New School, In The Historical Present: Trumpet Performance, New York, NY
2019 The Old Stone House, No More Water: Duo Exhibition w/ Tahir Carl Karmali, Brooklyn, NY
2019 CampoBase LPS, Curatorial Fundraiser, Turin, Italy
2019 1980 Performance Space, Black Power Naps, Trumpet Performance, East Village, New York
2018 Panopoly Performance Lab, Duo Performance w/ Ayana Evans, Williamsburg, New York
2018 Highline Park, Elia Alba’s Supper Club: Intimacy, Chelsea, New York
2018 Foley Gallery, American Australian Association, Lower East Side, New York
2018 François Schneider Foundation, Contemporary Talents 7th Edition, Finalist, Wattwiller, France
2018 Pfizer Building, Bric-a-Brac, Brooklyn, New York
2018 Pfizer Building, Re: Art Show, Brooklyn, New York
2018 Project 308 Gallery, How To Be A Respectable Junkie, Buffalo, New York
2018 SUNY Geneseo, Addiction: Art and Photography, Geneseo, New York
2017 Eric Firestone Gallery, ArtCritical Benefit, NoHo, New York
2017 Axom Gallery, Addiction: Art and Photography, Rochester, New York
2017 BRIC, OPEN (C)ALL TRUTH, Downtown Brooklyn, New York
2017 University of Rochester, Addiction: Art and Photography, Rochester, New York
2017 Westbeth Gallery, Second Nature, West Village, New York
Grants and Opportunities:
2024 FST Studio Projects Grant $8,000
2022 San Diego Museum of Art lecture on “Broken Windows”
2021 CERF+ emergency assistance grant for craft-based practices
2017 Joan Sutherland Fund Grant, Research History, Colonialism (Indigenous), Sydney, Australia
2017 Parsons Travel Grant, Research History, Colonialism (Aristocracy), London, England
2015 University of Texas San Antonio, Research History, Berlin Study Abroad
2014 University of Urbino Study Abroad Program sponsored by UTSA, 24 cities in Italy
Residencies:
2022 ISCP International Studio & Curatorial Program, (3-months), Brooklyn, New York
2021 Alex Brown Foundation, (1-month), Des Moines, Iowa
2021 Artist in Residence Catalonia AIRCAT, (1-month), Tossa de Mar, Spain
2019 CampoBase: Symposium w/ Ginevra Ludovici (10-days) Turin, Rome, and Venice, Italy
2017 Carriageworks with Tony Albert (2-months), Sydney, Australia
2014 University of Urbino, COLFA Artist-in-residence, (3-months) Urbino, Italy
Press:
KPBS San Diego on Chapel of the Rocks (solo show)
https://www.kpbs.org/news/arts-culture/2022/10/27/a-chapel-of-broken-glass-and-bad-faith BOMB Magazine - Studio Visit with Justin Sterling before SDMA Exhibition
https://bombmagazine.org/articles/studio-visit-justin-sterling/
Hyperallergic - Sustainability as a Form of Resistance in Art (group show)
https://hyperallergic.com/721096/sustainability-as-a-form-of-resistance-nyu-latinx-project/ ArtForum -Justin Sterling: Orange Chapel by Jeffrey Kastner (solo show)
https://www.artforum.com/print/reviews/202101/justin-sterling-84683
PBS - NYC ARTS Choice: MoMA PS1, “Marking Time” Feature (group show) https://www.pbs.org/video/nyc-arts-choice-moma-ps1-marking-time-mxiqiz/
ArtCritical - Justin Sterling: Orange Chapel by David Cohen (solo show)
https://artcritical.com/2020/11/08/david-cohen-on-justin-sterling/
Made in Mind Magazine - Interview with Ginevra Ludovici, print (front cover in Milan) https://www.madeinmindmagazine.com/interview-with-justin-sterling/
Hyperallergic - The Layered Metaphors of Broken Windows by Seph Rodney (solo show) https://hyperallergic.com/507144/the-layered-metaphors-of-broken-windows/
LivingLifeFearless (LLF) - Justin Sterling: “Broken Windows” | The Olympia Project (solo performance) https://livinglifefearless.co/2019/photos/justin-sterling-broken-windows-the-olympia-project/
Bklyner - No More Water: Artists Explore Injustice, Displacement, And Climate Change (duo show) https://bklyner.com/no-more-water-artists-explore-injustice-displacement-and-climate-change/
Publications:
Change From Within: Reimagining the 21st-Century Prosecutor
https://fairandjustprosecution.org/meet-the-artists/
ArtCritical.com - The Threshold of Perception: Ad Reinhardt’s Blue Paintings
https://artcritical.com/2017/11/10/threshold-perception-ad-reinhardts-blue-paintings/ ArtCritical.com - Between the Ancestors and the Living: Nari Ward at New Museum https://artcritical.com/2019/05/05/justin-sterling-on-nari-ward/
Artist Talks:
Docent lecture at San Diego Museum of Art on “Chapel of the Rocks” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id-rvE77Tr0
Mailing List
Stay up to date on current exhibitions and say hi.
