Miriam Bloom American, b. 1949

Biography

My sculptures come out of my interest and experience with esotaric spiritual practices in combination with a fascination with contemporary culture.

- Miriam Bloom

Miriam Bloom is an American artist who creates asymmetric, biomorphic sculptures situated at the boundary between representation and abstraction.

 

Her sculptures begin as small sketches and clay maquettes and then find their new life in papier-mache, terracotta, or plaster forms. Often taking several years to construct one sculpture, her objects are artistic meditations, meticulously formed with gaps, holes, and inconsistencies intended to offer room for the spirit.

Conceptually, her organic forms are influenced by the beauty in irregularity and asymmetry similarly found in the visual art of Jean Arp, Louise Bourgeois, and Constantin Brancusi. Bloom is also inspired by Ancestral Puebloan vessels, the Hindu lingam, and the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi. Her unique fusion of rich cultural streams in conversation with contemporary sensibilities creates a complex beauty in simplicity.


Bloom holds her BA from Brandeis University and her MFA from University of Iowa. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including in Hiroshima, Japan, Malmo, Sweden, Lippstadt, Germany, Istanbul, and more. She has been the recipient of numerous grants including the Gottlieb Foundation grant, Athena Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, The Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant. Her sculpture is in numerous museum and private collections including the Bass Museum in Miami, DePaul Art Museum in Chicago, Bemis Foundation in Omaha, the Louise Nevelson estate, and others.

Artworks
  • Dark gray abstract terra cotta sculpture with cylindrical and bulbous elements suggesting hands and feet
    Hi and Bye, 1991
  • Black and red bulbous papier-mache sculpture
    Fat Dog, 2003
  • Dark brown abstract sculpture in terra cotta of amorphous shapes stacked vertically
    Bust, 1992
  • Black abstract porcelain sculpture with six small spherical elements attached to a cylindrical element
    Flesh Pot, 1990
  • Spherical blue-green papier-mache sculpture
    All the Dreams You Show Up in Are Not Your Own, 2010
  • Bright blue abstract sculpture in mixed media with textile
    Clouds and Sand, 2010
  • Organically shaped abstract pale yellow stoneware sculpture
    Untitled, 2004
  • Abstract green porcelain sculpture with two spheres on a flared oblong element
    Up and Up, 1998
  • Dark brown abstract terra cotta sculpture with spherical elements on organic elements
    First Base, 1998
  • Light blue stoneware sculpture of an abstract bisected humanoid
    Sababa Bodhi, 2004
  • Spherical blue-green papier-mache sculpture
    Untitled, circa 1980s
  • Black papier-mache sculpture of stacked spherical elements
    The Double, 1990
  • Dark gray abstract armature sculpture with large oval and smaller spherical elements
    Now and Now, 2000
  • Dark gray abstract terra cotta sculpture suggesting a figure walking
    Mean Streak, 1992
  • Dark gray clay and wax abstract sculpture with round and oblong elements
    Wit's End, 1993
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