James Labold
Mirrored Athenai, 2024
Kiln cast glass
6.5 x 7.5 x 4"

Artist Statement
My work draws on historical imagery to create narratives reflecting on the bridges between past and present culture. I have been working with glass as my primary medium for over 20 years and over the last 5 years I have been researching 3D printing and incorporated digital fabrication into my existing analog creative practice.
I am interested in how imagery can reinforce and create new cultural narratives. By utilizing open source 3D scans of classical sculptures and historic figures, I embrace the accessibility of new technologies while exploring their limitations. In a historical moment when we are entering a new world of AI generated imagery and much of our human interaction is mediated through digital means: notions of what is real and true are shifting before our eyes. My work aspires to explore these spaces between historic reality and contemporary truth.

Artist Bio
James Labold is an artist, educator, and fabricator, living in Philadelphia, PA. James was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, just north of Philadelphia, where he spent his childhood summers visiting museums with his grandmother, historical sites, New Jersey boardwalks, and a theme park based on candy bars. These were all critical to his development as an artist.
His work draws on contemporary and historical imagery to create sculptures and installations reflecting on the bridges between past and present culture, inspired by the high culture of classical sculpture as much as the low culture of dollar store holiday decorations. Labold primarily works in glass, as well as resin and a variety of mixed media. Found objects are manipulated and remixed through an iterative process of mold making and assemblage. His recent work has been exploring the use of digital fabrication technologies such as 3D printing with traditional analog processes such as lost wax glass casting. A love of history, mythology, and philosophy drives his curiosity into how we define our cultures via images, and how these images can be subverted.

InLiquid, jameslabold.com

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