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Introduction
Beth Cavener, also known as Beth Cavener Stitcher, is an American artist based out of Helena, Montana. A classically trained sculptor, her process involves building complex metal armatures to support massive amounts of clay. Cavener is best known for her fantastical animal figures, which embody the complexity of human emotion and behavior.

She was born in 1972 in Pasadena, California, United States. After receiving her BA in Sculpture from Haverford College in Pennsylvania in 1995, she had apprenticeships in Nashville, Tennessee and at the Charles H. Cecil studios in Florence, Italy. In 2002, she completed a master of fine arts in ceramics Ohio State University. Cavener spent two years as a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts and completed a brief Guest Artist residency at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After this intense period of development where she continued to work on life-size and larger scale works, she was represented by the Garth Clark Gallery in New York, NY. In addition to her full-time studio practice, Cavener and partner, Alessandro Gallo, opened a group professional studio space in 2014 under the name Studio 740 in Helena, MT. in order to mentor and support young emerging artists. She is vocal about the lack of funding for young artists, and has completed two successful crowd-funding initiatives, one in partnership with United States Artists (USA) and another using self-directed initiative using Patreon, to support the artists in residence of Studio 740.

Cavener focuses her sculpture on human psychology, stripped of context and rationalization, and articulated through animal forms. By hollowing out large blocks of wet clay, Cavener's figure seem as though they have sprung out of the medium, creating motion and energy. As she states, “on the surface,” says Cavener, “these figures are simply feral animals suspended in a moment of tension. Beneath the surface, they embody the consequences of human fear, apathy, aggression, and misunderstanding”. This is an incredibly physical process, sometimes involving thousands of pounds of clay, which is sculpted using her whole body. Her work is exhibited in several private galleries and public museums throughout the United States.

Contents 1	Biography 2	Work 2.1 Style 2.2 Themes and Subject

3	Awards 4	Exhibitions 4.1	Selected solo exhibitions 4.2	Selected group exhibitions 5	Publications 6	References 7	External links Biography

Biography
Cavener was born in Pasadena, California, United States. Her father is a molecular biologist, and inspired Cavener to study science up until college. She would work in his lab in the summers, and says that she aspired to a career as an academic scientist. Her mother, Nancy Jacobsohn, is a sculptor and an art teacher, who taught Cavener how to work with clay starting at an early age.

Cavener went on to pursue her studies in physics and astronomy at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. News of her parent's impending divorce came before her senior year, and she decided to travel to Florence, Italy, where she would attend the Cecil Academy of Art. Upon returning, Cavener switched her major to Fine Art and received a BA in Sculpture in 1995.[6]

Cavener would spend the next few years honing her artistic style through a series of apprenticeships and fellowships.Though she had been trained in the classical atelier style throughout her studies, this traditional way of sculpting that focused on the human form did not inspire her. Instead, Cavener discovered that the medium, clay, and the affordances it offered where her main source of inspiration. Cavener spent four years in Columbus, Ohio, developing her artistic style and voice while managing an art gallery. She eventually entered graduate school at The Ohio State University, where she received her Master's in Fine Arts degree in ceramics between 2000 and 2002. Her thesis exhibition, "tremble shiver," made the transition from working with the human figure to using human-scaled portrayals of the animal body to express human emotion and psychological portraits.

After this intense period of development where she continued to work on life-size and larger scale works, she was represented by the Garth Clark Gallery in New York, NY. Her first solo exhibition with the gallery, "A Modest Proposal" was shown in 2006.In 2008, Cavener joined the Claire Oliver Gallery in New York City. She opened a show with the gallery called “On Tender Hooks” on October 22, 2009. Cavener is currently represented by the Jason Jacques Gallery in Manhattan, and opened the exhibition, "The Other", in November 2017, with 5 new major pieces. In 2010, she had a show entitled "The Four Humors," inspired by the ancient Greek notion of being able to characterize one's personality by which "humor" they possessed in excess. Her last show with Claire Oliver, "Come Undone," was displayed in the fall of 2012.

Cavener has traveled the United States and the world as an artist in residence, working in China (2008), Italy (2012), and Japan (2013), building up her network and her reputation as an artist. Now, she has garnered publicity for her crowding sourcing efforts. Her studio in Helena, Montana, Studio 740, patronizing young, emerging artists, providing them with studio space, mentorship, and funding with which to hone their artistic voices. These sponsorships are made possible through crowdsourced funding initiatives, most of which happen via online platforms.

Work
Cavener's sculptures are large and dynamic, evoking fear and anxiety that is distinctly human even though it is presented through animal forms. The body language of these animal forms are metaphors for how humans think and feel, and they act as a psychological portrait more than a physical reaction. The Honolulu Museum of Art, the Arizona State University Art Museum (Tempe), the Chazen Museum of Art (Madison, Wisconsin), the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (Spokane, Washington), the Racine Art Museum (Racine, Wisconsin), the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington DC), and the Tennessee State Museum (Nashville) are among the public collections holding sculptures by Beth Cavener. She has promised gifts to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Art and Design, both in New York City, New York. In 2008, Cavener joined the Claire Oliver Gallery, where she opened a show called “On Tender Hooks” on October 22, 2009. In 2010, she had a show entitled "The Four Humors," inspired by the ancient Greek notion of being able to characterize one's personality by which "humor" they possessed in excess. Her last show with Claire Oliver, "Come Undone," was displayed in the fall of 2012.

Style
Cavener's usual working method is building solid sculptures on metal armatures, often with 2,000 or more pounds of clay at a time, then cutting the piece into 30-160 sections, hollowing out each section out to 1/4" thickness, and reassembling the pieces before firing. In order to work on a larger scale, the reassembled hollow pieces are then cut again to fit inside the kiln, fired, and then reassembled with glues and epoxies. (A slideshow of this process can be seen on her website under the Materials and Techniques section). She usually paints the surface with flat interior latex paint. This allows her to fill in seams after reassembly and maintain the look and feel of clay. She has also used terra sigillata and vitreous slips. Themes and Subjects

Cavener is best known for her hand-built stoneware animals in unexpected poses. Her A Second Kind of Loneliness from 2009, in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art, is an example of this. The hollow sculpture contains an internal mechanical breathing device that animates the pinwheel.

For "Come Undone," her 2012 show at the Claire Oliver Gallery, she explored mixed media, including handmade doilies for "The White Hind" and sugar crystals for "The Adoration." "Each piece in the show is a self-portrait representing different aspects of the artist's femininity."[7] Stichter was quoted saying "I wanted to explore the idea of feminine sexuality and how difficult it is to express desire-passion in a woman without it being a taboo, or without it being seen as wanton."[8]