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.