saul chernick

JUNE 13 - JULY 12, 2026

In the summer of 2024, I began collaging pieces of thick felt on painted wood panels. I was seeking ways to create, iterate, and process ideas more quickly than my sculpture work would allow.

At first glance, the panels can pass for paintings, and part of me was tempted to call them that, just to keep things simple. However, the forms are not rendered in paint, they are shapes crafted from of physical materials. This key difference enables them to communicate across two “frequencies”. The first frequency is graphic; the way the image is experienced as shape and color. The second, is tactility, a buzzing presence generated from the specific properties of the materials themselves. Thin shadows, cast by the low-relief forms, sharpen the images, linking the two frequencies in harmonious union. I begin with black and white marker drawings and think of the panels as sculptural interpretations.

Using varied materials to fashion a glyph, design, image or pattern is nothing new, examples include hieroglyphs, mosaics, stained glass, textiles, and so much more. The human desire to view and create objects that communicate across these two frequencies is an ancient thing and I’m proud to make work that honors this continuum.

When producing these images, I often think about the mechanisms of the human body as well as architecture and machinery. These are things that have insides and outsides (and things on the inside are often in a state of flux, activity, and transformation). They have permeable and impermeable borders; they are containers, platforms, and foundations. They are precarious, in search of alignment, and perpetually falling in and out of balance.