Relief 15, by Pamela Council, is part of a series of abstract works Council made that relate to experiences the artist had working in the sneaker industry. Arranged in a Minimalist-inspired grid, the tiles are fashioned after actual design samples from the Reebok texture archives. The gestural markings that form the ridges in the silicone add an anthropomorphic element to the works, suggestive of figurative images relating to the human body.

Council is a multi-disciplinary artist working in sculpture, printing, installation and performance. Their work deploys surreal and uncanny forms and an assortment of found and fabricated materials to explore a conceptual framework Council calls “blaxidermy”—a blend of taxidermy and blacksploitation.

Council says. “Blaxidermy addresses black fungibility, like asking why are so many Black people are valued after life than during our lives. I make these works around that question, using adornment from materials from my culture.”

Council earned a BA from Williams College and an MFA from Columbia University, and is a recipient of a Joan Mitchel Foundation Grant, an Andy Warhol Foundation Grant, a MacArthur Travel Grant, and a Harpo Foundation Grant for Visual Artists, among others. Council’s work has been exhibited extensively, including at The Studio Museum in Harlem; Williams College Museum of Art; Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, OR; Charles H Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI; New museum for Contemporary Art, NY; African American Museum in Philadelphia, PA; and Southampton historical Museum, among others. Council has been Artist-in-Residence at MacDowell Colony, Red Bull Arts, Bemis Center, Rush Arts, MANA Contemporary, Signal Culture, Mass MoCA, and Wassaic Project.