Rachel Frank in conversation with SARAHCROWN

Delve with us into the studio and field practice of Rachel Frank. Read our wonderful conversation with her below. Rachel Frank will be an exhibiting artist in our June show. (Stay tuned for our Newsletter or Request a Preview)

1. What are your main sources of inspiration?

Chrysalid Interchange_ Hand and Pitcher Plant (Tropical Nepenthe), 2024, Stoneware ceramics with glazes, fabric, thread, and zipties, 21 x 12 x 4.5 in. (Private Collection)

As a child growing up in Kentucky, I was always outside looking for fossils, looking under rocks for salamanders or snakes, or playing in the woods. I have always been inspired by the natural world and enjoy learning about connections between species and researching how human actions can help or hurt environments. I read a lot of books: non-fiction environmental, science fiction, and film theory because I love revisiting narratives and thinking about films more deeply. Science-fiction books and movies that I like are allegorical but deal with the natural world.

I’m also inspired by the landscapes around me, so I like going to new parts of NYC or am drawn to residencies where I can more intimately learn about a particular species or ecosystem and respond with a project. I work as a wildlife rehabilitator, so I am also very inspired by my work and the species that I treat. Intimately caring for individual animals makes me more aware and connected to both the diverse landscapes of NYC and the human-made dangers to species such as lead poisoning, rodenticide usage, or our non-bird safe glass windows.

Chrysalid Interchange_Hand and Fractured Snake, 2024, Stoneware Ceramic with glazes, hand-cast glass and found glass, 10 x 12.5 x 3 in.

2. Are there any artists, movements, or cultural influences that inspire you or impact your work?

I’ve always been interested in objects that have a performative or ritualistic purpose, and I am very influenced by ancient Eurasian offering vessels. These ceramic objects typically held wine or oil and came in several primary shapes: the rhyton, which was animal-shaped, the kernos, which was circular-shaped with individual offering cups, and the lekythos, which was tall and slender and was a vessel tied with loss and used in funerary offerings or incorporated into grave sites. For the past few years, I have been making my own versions of these vessels to address contemporary environmental themes and at times using them in performances. Our experience with ancient ritual vessels is only as objects behind glass in museums; by remaking and re-interpreting them, I am re-activating them and working to find ways to connect more deeply or intimately with landscapes and other species.

Chrysallid Protectant_Wading Egret, Mangrove, and Oyster, 2024, stoneware ceramic with glazes, bronze cast foot and beak, fabric, thread, and zipties, 31 x 12 x 3.5 in

3. Are there recurring themes or concepts that shape your artworks? Describe.

Since 2014, I have been very interested in rewilding, or the environmental practice of reintroducing species or restoring past landscapes to help repair an ecosystem. I think of the landscape as having a memory and through this practice, we are engaging with both that past and the future. Themes of healing, repair, and protection are very much a part of rewilding for me and a strong aspect to my work. As a wildlife rehabilitator, I am intimately engaged in the healing of individual animals, but also aware of overall populations in the city. Peregrine falcons and bald eagles have made a comeback after being reintroduced in the 1970’s and the oyster often comes into my work as a protective and restorative species that we are actively working to rebuild in the waters around NYC.

4. Tell us about your creative process. How does the creation of an artwork begin and end?

I often get interested in a particular species or relationship. I like to do a lot of research, thinking, and reading before starting a project. I also rely on collections of internet images of ancient vessels, historical artworks, various species, historical illustrations, etc. which I have organized in folders on my computer. Writing in particular is a big part of how I start a project, but I also often make very loose sketches before starting to sculpt. My sketches are always loose though, because I like to figure out the piece while building and respond to the work as I go. For ceramic pieces, I make a lot of test tiles of glazes and combinations and sometimes the works are re-fired several times. The sculptures then return to my primary studio where I incorporate other elements at times: fabric, glass, bronze or combine them with others for installation.

5. Are there specific rituals or routines you follow when starting a new project?

I like to go to a park or quieter area of the city to walk around and think when starting a new project. Concentrating on listening to bird sound, insects, and water frees me up and rejuvenates me. If I’m ever feeling stuck, this is an important ritual for me.

Interstitial Landscape_ Chrysalids (Mushrooms and Milkcrate) (a), 2023, Stoneware and paper clay ceramic, glazes, fabric, and plexiglass, 13 x 23 x 32 in.

6. Describe your studio or workspace. What are the three objects/items that have to be there always, no matter what.

I have several workspaces. My ceramic firing space is filled with glaze tests and has reference images on the wall. It’s cramped, so I can only work on one larger project at a time. In my primary studio, I usually have multiple projects I am working on at the same time. I like everything to be clean and organized with bins and drawers of materials I rely on. Items I need no matter what are my Moleskin notebook, books, and computer.

Chrysalid Metamorphosis Dual Vessel, 2025, Stoneware ceramic with glazes, fabric, thread, zipties, epoxy, 19 x 15 x 14 in.

7. Describe your favorite artwork made by an artist you admire. Why is it your favorite work?

Probably my favorite artwork are the cave paintings at Lascaux. I like to imagine the power the space must have had for the people that used it for story-telling or spiritual practice. Flickering firelight must have animated the images of the animals on the uneven cave walls in a way that seems both theatrical and a form of early technology. It was also long assumed that these works were made by men or male shaman, but recent analysis of the handprints in the caves show most of the handprints are from women. We probably will never know for sure, but I also am inspired to think some of the first artworks that still hold so much power and mystery were made by women.

8. Describe your favorite artwork and why you think it stands out. (from your own production, not of other artists)

I tend to be most excited about the project I am currently working on and feel like my favorite artwork in this way is always changing.

9. How has technology impacted your artistic process, if at all? Are there any new tools or technologies that you find particularly exciting or influential in the art world?

Rachel Frank

I’ve been embracing casting much more in my work which is not exactly a new technology but does utilize newer materials. I’ve been both hand-sculpting in clay and wax and making life-casts using alginate material to cast pieces in glass and bronze. Lost wax technique is an old technology, but use of dental alginate to create detailed molds is still relatively new.

10. What is a dream project that you have not started yet but which you’d love to realize?

I would love to make some large-scale floating platforms that have ceramic sculptural elements for aquatic birds to nest on. Many aquatic bird species nest on islands around NYC, but many of these islands are under threat from rising waters due to climate change and introduced species, like rats or raccoons that can destroy these ground dwelling nests. I help Audubon conduct bird surveys in the summer and have seen islands that once were extremely plentiful for egret, heron, or ibis become abandoned due to predation. Floating islands both protect these nests from predators and rise and fall with shifts in water, so nests cannot get washed away. I would love to make sculptural platforms that provided habitat for these birds and contained offering vessel forms in ceramic that would collect small pools of rainwater on top the platform.

11. If you weren’t an artist, what would you do?

I would probably be a field biologist. I love learning new things and working with other species. I feel very lucky that as a wildlife rehabilitator I get the opportunity to work with wild species with the goal of returning them to the wild. I really enjoy science, using my hands, and learning so any other profession would have to include these elements.

Rachel Frank

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Rachel Frank is a sculptor and performance artist who explores the tensions between the natural world and the human-made, the animal and the political, and the past and the present. Frank is also a licensed wildlife rehabilitator specializing in the care of waterfowl and raptors. This intimate engagement with wildlife deeply informs her artistic practice. Working across sculpture, video, and performance, her work investigates the connections between non-human species that contribute to the protection, healing, and restoration of ecosystems. She utilizes materials such as bronze, glass, and clay—substances that undergo transformative processes of heating, melting, and liquefying before reaching their final forms. This transformative malleability mirrors the themes within her practice, which delve into the radical restoration of species and landscapes through "rewilding," the migratory movements of tidal and pelagic species, and the broader interconnections and exchanges between life forms.

Born and raised in Kentucky, Rachel Frank received her BFA from The Kansas City Art Institute and her MFA from The University of Pennsylvania. She is the recipient of grants from The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, The Puffin Foundation, and Franklin Furnace Archive. Residencies include Yaddo, Marie Walsh Sharpe, The Museum of Arts and Design, Skowhegan, the Innoko National Wildlife Refuge (Alaska), Franconia Sculpture Park, and MOCA, Tucson (AZ). Her performance pieces have been shown at HERE, Socrates Sculpture Park, The Select Fair, and The Bushwick Starr in New York City, The Marran Theater at Lesley University (MA), and at The Watermill Center in collaboration with Robert Wilson. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include MOCA Tucson (AZ), the SPRING/BREAK Art Show (NYC), Thomas Hunter Projects at Hunter College (NYC), Standard Space (Sharon, CT), and Geary Contemporary (NYC). She works in wildlife rehabilitation as staff at the Wild Bird Fund and is based in Brooklyn, NY.