Paradigm Gallery + Studio is delighted to present Lazarus Taxa, an exhibition of new works by Caitlin McCormack on view October 27 – December 9, 2017. Lazarus Taxa will present over 50 fiber sculptures, marking a continuation of the artist’s ongoing investigation of the warping of memory over time through the continuous breakdown of physical matter.

Trained in illustration, McCormack creates sculptures utilizing garments and discarded objects that she views as extensions of human identity. This series takes a more perverse, grotesque turn for the artist, incorporating materials with a more sinewy and oily texture. Chaining together disintegrated cloth and textile materials coated in enamel paint, she creates abstract sculptural works that occasionally reference the human form.

The exhibition title derives from the paleontological concept of lazarus taxa, a term which describes species that disappear and reappear from the fossil record. In this body of work, McCormack explores how repressed memories come back as monstrous and warped versions of original events. The series suggests the monstrosity that is produced when one attempts to forget and the festering of trauma that eventually returns. These works recall the fiber sculptures of artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, Sheila Pepe; as well as the taxonomic illustrations of Leonard Baskin and Hyman Bloom.

Caitlin McCormack received a BFA in Illustration in 2010 from the University of the Arts (Philadelphia, PA). She currently lives and works in Philadelphia, PA. McCormack has exhibited her work nationally and internationally. Select gallery exhibitions include Vanilla Gallery, Tokyo; Last Rites Gallery, NYC; Red Truck Gallery, New Orleans; Spoke Art, San Francisco; Jonathan Levine Projects, Jersey City; Antler Gallery, Portland; Stephen Romano Gallery, Brooklyn; La Luz de Jesus, Los Angeles; Paradigm Gallery + Studio, Philadelphia; Cotton Candy Machine, Brooklyn, amongst others. Her work has been presented in several museum shows including The Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke; The Morbid Anatomy Museum, Brooklyn; and The Mütter Museum, Philadelphia; as well as Museum Rijswijk, Rijswijk NL.