Geode, 2020
Commissioned installation by Sam Vernon with 2nd Grade Student at Dr. MLK Jr. School

Geode is a living wall artwork made by Vernon and all three 2nd Grade classes at Dr. MLK Jr. School. The collage installation is composed of xeroxed texture rubbings, clippings from advertisements, and mixed media.

The artwork was made through a series of Texture Hunt Challenges led by Vernon. Small groups of students gathered textures around the school by placing a piece of paper over a surface and rubbing it with a crayon. The school was an open site of discovery and provided an invitation to engage its tactility: walls, lockers, signage, mosaics, objects, etc. became locations for observation and creation. Textured results were translated into a colorful, layered collage on panels. This work is installed in the upstairs main hallway.

Sam Vernon earned her MFA in Painting/Printmaking from Yale University in 2015 and her BFA from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 2009. Her installations combine xeroxed drawings, photographs, paintings and sculptural components in an exploration of personal narrative and identity. She uses installation and performance to honor the past while revising historical memory. Vernon has most recently exhibited with We Buy Gold, Interstitial Gallery, Coney Art Walls curated by Jeffrey Deitch, Brooklyn Museum, Queens Museum, Fowler Museum at UCLA and Seattle Art Museum. Sam lives in San Francisco, CA and teaches printmaking as an Assistant Professor at California College of the Arts (CCA).