Austen Camille

Occasionally residing in rural Texas, Austen Camille is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice investigates her itinerant state as it relates to land ecology, and is informed by and intertwined with her work as a builder and gardener. Camille seeks new relationships between built and natural environments in her work. Each site is encountered slowly and quietly, in all its complexity, in order to create work that is in conversation with its place. Camille received her MFA in Painting at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture in 2020. Alongside her studio practice, Camille also works to bring the visual arts into diverse and publicly accessible spaces.

When the cows arrived in America by boat, many living things still called this place home. Every painted bird, insect, plant you see before you (except for the Holsteins) has either gone extinct, left the region, or is on the brink of leaving. Different creatures call this place home now. A different climate shapes this ecosystem. This is the landscape you are breathing in. By the end of the century, this place will feel similar to that of northwestern Kansas. Through your phone, you can view the creatures that may come to live here, the weather we may have, the crops that may grow, and you can listen to what it may sound like. Experience this land’s past, present and future simultaneously, just for a moment.”

Horse/Vessel by Austen Camille. November 2018. Sheridan, WY. Acrylic, house paint, graphite on drop cloth. 96”x144”.