The Ohio Artist Registry (OAR) is an exciting opportunity for artists to share their work, connect with the creative community, and establish an online presence—all on a free, virtual platform! The OAR encourages artists working in all art forms, throughout Ohio and beyond, to create a profile, which allows them to better promote themselves and their work. Being listed in the OAR provides artists with new opportunities to share their work with clients, galleries, patrons, and audiences. A listing in the OAR does not confer an endorsement, approval, or verification by the Ohio Arts Council.
For more information, contact Kathy Signorino, artist programs director, at kathy.signorino@oac.ohio.gov or 614-728-6140.
2024 Ohio Artist Registry Juried Exhibition
Byproduct Studios
Byproduct Studios – Molly Jo Burke & Nathan GorgenColumbus Ohio 43209 United States Cell Phone: 6148047992 Cell Phone: 845-249-9398 Website: Byproduct Studios Collaborations Page Website: Existential Byproduct Website: Expanding Wasteline
Bio
Byproduct Studios, established 2017
Who are we?
Nathan and Molly are an artist and designer couple and parents of young children, their collaborative practice utilizes excess material from their respective processes and home life to create new artworks. A variety of coatings, such as plaster, wax, epoxy, and faux painting, also left over from other projects, are then applied to the artworks to either heighten or obscure their innate qualities. This allows the artists to play with perceptions of a material’s purpose, quality and value, as waste remnants and the byproducts of their life are transformed through the process. Incorporating reflections on their lives lived together, themes of landscape, play, and architecture flow through the art works.
Nathan Gorgen
Nathan Gorgen, b. 1986, is a Columbus, Ohio based artist and educator. His artwork explores the space between art and design, as well as digital and traditional fabrication and recycled materials. This manifests as objects on a continuum between furniture and sculpture with varying levels of functionality. Gorgen received his BFA (2008) in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and his MFA (2012) from the Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD). After graduation he worked in exhibition design and manufacturing before becoming the Lab Supervisor at the Studios for Art and Design Research at The Ohio State University (OSU). Gorgen has also taught at CCAD and OSU, and exhibited his work around the country, including at the Toledo Museum of Art, Inlight Richmond, and the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art.
Nate working on a custom bookcase in 2018
Molly Jo Burke
Molly Jo Burke, b. 1984, is a Columbus, Ohio based artist and educator. She creates artwork examining details of our environment and repetition of forms throughout various ecosystems using traditional and non-traditional materials. Her use of materials reflects on humanity’s interactions with nature – sometimes beautiful but at times destructive and precarious. Forms are inspired by cells, plants, coral, and the architecture created by living organisms. Burke received a BFA (2006) from Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD), and MFA (2009), The Ohio State University (OSU), in 2019 she accepted the Barnett Fellowship from OSU’s Arts Administration Education and Policy Program to pursue her PhD. She has taught at OSU, CCAD, and Corning Museum of Glass. Her work has been featured most recently at Toledo Museum of Art, Columbus Museum of Art, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France.
Artist Statement
existential byproduct
Nathan and Molly are an artist and designer couple and parents of young children, who collaborate on artwork that raises issues of environmentalism and waste and the nature of the materials and objects that surround their everyday lives. The artists have very different individual practices, and they use the excess material left behind by their respective processes to create their collaborative work. With this newest series they have begun to use the objects they collect in their family life, such as unused children’s items and leftover components from home improvement projects. This results in imaginative recycling and repurposing of substances for roles that they do not normally fill, which in turn allows the artists to address their own “waste stream.” A variety of coatings, such as plaster, wax, epoxy, and faux painting (also left over from other projects) are then applied to the materials to either heighten or obscure their innate qualities. This allows the artists to play with perceptions of a material’s purpose, quality and value, as waste material and the byproducts of their life are transformed through the process. Incorporating reflections on their lives lived together themes of landscape, play, and architecture flow through the art works.
