Stacey Lee Webber
American artist, Stacey Lee Webber was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1982. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Ball State University in 2005 and a graduate degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she was awarded a full-time artist assistantship during her three year degree program. After earning a Master of Fine Arts in 2008, she went on to become an artist in residence at Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago in 2009. In 2011, Webber moved to Philadelphia to teach at Tyler School of Art, University of the Arts and Rowan University.
Webber has exhibited her work around the world including the US, Europe, Korea and Tokyo. Her work has been curated into the permanent collections of The Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery in Washington DC, the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton Massachusetts, the fine art collection of Wells Fargo Bank, the Kamm Teapot Foundation collection and numerous private art collections around the world.
As a contemporary metalsmith, Webber cherishes working with found materials whose history is physically evident. Her work is often described as meticulous, pushing the boundaries of everyday recognizable objects to the point of unidentifiable. Through material, she strives to make artwork that interests a broad range of viewers and challenges their preconceived notions of the objects that surround them.
Webber’s sculpture is often painstakingly laborious which she uses as a continuous theme throughout her work. The pieces make the viewer question the value of her labor and the work ethic of blue collar America. Her practice incorporates a wide range of techniques including coin cutting, embroidery, metal fabrication, weaving and resin pouring. All of these techniques, and more, are used to declare the importance of the handmade while challenging these same systems. Webber’s objects are haunting celebrations of liberty and labor. Webber is currently working and living on the northeast side of Philadelphia.