Kendall Buster
What Blooms Under Extreme Circumstances
September 2018
Using the language of architectural models and drawings for buildings of uncertain scale, artist Kendall Buster explores the territory where forms in nature and the built environment might converse. Initially trained as a microbiologist, her work is informed by both mechanical precision and dynamic systems of germination, budding, and cellular growth. Her first solo exhibition at Hazard will include a site specific sculptural installation created in response to the particulars of the gallery space and a series of graphite drawings suggestive of scientific illustrations for imagined biological forms.
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Kendall Buster earned a BFA degree from the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington DC and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University as well as participating in the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Studio Program in New York City.
Her work has been exhibited in numerous venues nationally and internationally including the Hirshhorn Museum and the Kreeger Museum in Washington, DC, Artist’s Space and the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City, the Haggerty Museum in Milwaukee, the Kemper Museum in Kansas City, the Boise Art Museum in Boise, Idaho, Suyama Space in Seattle, Washington, the Bahnhof Westend in Berlin, and the KZNSA Gallery in Durban, South Africa.
Buster has created commissioned sculptures for the DC Convention Center and Wilmer Cutler Hale in Washington, DC, Markel Corporation and Massey Cancer Center in Richmond, VA, The Science Center at The Episcopal School in Alexandria, Virginia, The Bank of Oklahoma Arena in Tulsa, as well as a roof-top sculpture for The Nevada Museum of Art in Reno. Other sculpture commissions include The Agave Branch Library in Phoenix, Arizona, The Indianapolis Museum of Art’s Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park, The New Frick Chemistry Building at Princeton University, Gilman Hall at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, The San Francisco International Airport, The University of Houston Health and Biomedical Center, and the US Embassy in Rabat, Morocco.
Buster has been interviewed by Neda Ulaby on NPR’s Morning Edition as part of a series on art and science and was the recipient of a 2005 American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in the Arts. She currently lives and works in Richmond, Virginia and is a Professor in the Department of Sculpture and Extended Media at Virginia Commonwealth University.
