Ishmael Randall Weeks 

Lima Peru and Brooklyn, NY
Residency: October-November 2008

About the Artist
Born in Cuzco, Peru, Ishmael Randall Weeks currently lives and works in Lima Peru and Brooklyn, NY. 

Ishmael graduated with a BA from Bard College in 2000. He has been the recipient of an award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in 2006 and a grant from the Art Matters foundation in 2008. He has attended several residencies including the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2007,Residencia Kiosko in Bolivia in 2008, the Vermont Studio Center in 2003 and will participate in a residency at La Curtiduria in Oaxaca, Mexico in 2009. Currently he is a resident at Sculpture Space in Utica, NY.

Ishmael is represented by Eleven Rivington Gallery in New York, Arroniz Contemporaneo in Mexico City and Revolver Galllery in Peru. His work has been shown in several museums in Peru and internationally, including the Contemporary Art Museum in Lima, Peru, Galeria Leme in Sao Paolo, Brazil, Open Space in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Lima Art Museum, the Museum of San Marcos and The National Museum also in Lima.

In 2007 he represented Peru in the Cuenca Bienal, and in 2009 represented Peru at the 10th Havana Bienal as well as the 53rd Venice Biennale.

Artist Statement
Issues of place, transformation, escape, collapse and nomadic existence have been predominant in my recent work. The materials employed are specific to the sculptural situation, but tend to come out of both societies and my own debris. I rarely use the materials in their original form but rather prefer to transform them into semi-functional building blocks that depend on the historical and symbolic reference inherent in the material. Wood from specific trees cut down on or around construction sites, boat parts from ship graveyards, inner tubes and tires, collected newspapers, plastic water bottles, steel barrels, and old chairs, are some of the materials that have been incorporated into my work. These materials are altered to form architectural spaces, rustic carts, cranes, canals, etc. that potentially could have a use and/or movement but instead are refused the possibility of that utility (in an economically productive sense) in favor of an allegorical narrative within a personal and shared cultural vocabulary.