In the 1990s, Arlene Shechet developed a reputation for humorous, amorphous sculptures that pulled from a wide range of materials: plaster, wood, metal, concrete, and ceramic. Back then, the work was smaller: made while she juggled life as an artist, mother, and teacher in a Tribeca home. These days, the artist lives Upstate; her work has grown as her space has.
This surging of scale peaked in 2024 with a career-defining presentation of six behemoth metal sculptures installed across the grounds of Storm King Art Center. The presentation was titled “Girl Group,” a comment on the male domination of both public art and the sculpture park’s collection, and stretched the artist into new terrain both materially and in her process. On Sept. 11, Shechet will follow up those learnings with an upcoming exhibition at Pace Gallery in New York. The show, titled “She Said She Said,” brings the full range of the 75-year-old artist’s practice to bear on her home city: an exploration of scale and a reverence for techniques and materials long confined to the realm of the decorative (the show includes a new series, “Touching Ground,” which revives a Greek and Roman ceramics technique used to create ancient tableware).
Ahead of the show’s opening, Shechet took CULTURED inside her Kingston, New York studio to discuss her hoarding habits, the mastermind behind her studio playlists, and her unorthodox view on tidying for guests.
What’s the first thing you do when you enter your studio?
I scan things that have been troubling me and open myself to a new way of seeing them.
What’s on your studio playlist?
Will Epstein, Play Time, Nina Simone, Darkside. My son is a musician and makes me playlists as gifts for my birthdays.
What’s in your studio fridge?
Ice cream sandwiches and kombucha.
When do you do your best work?
When I take my time digesting before taking action.
What’s the biggest studio mishap you’ve experienced?
I prefer not to remember.
There are a lot of costs that come with being an artist. Where do you splurge and where do you save?
Tools—always get the best.
What are your must-haves, and where do you get them?
Bounty paper towels…
Have you ever destroyed a work to make something new?
Destruction is the key to originality.
On a scale of hoarder to Marie Kondo, where do you fall?
Sculptors are always hoarders. Where is that hunk of wood I loved 10 years ago?
Is there a studio rule you live by?
Always be present—no talking, no audiobooks, just me, the music, and the thing.
What’s your studio uniform?
Clothing my kids grew out of years ago. I love feeling them with me.
Any rituals to prepare for a studio visit?
Do not clean up.
What book changed the way you think about art?
So many—all the time. Flannery O’Connor’s letters and now Gertrude Stein.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received from another artist?
Give things away.
More of our favorite stories from CULTURED
How Cat Cohen Predicted Her Own Stroke With a Comedy Routine
Does a New Exhibition at the Tate Dim the Power of Ana Mendieta’s Legacy?
Our Food Editor on the 8 Cookbooks Everyone Should Have in Their Kitchen
15 Young Collectors Reveal How They Broke Into the Art World
We Took a Bushwick Line Cook to See ‘Tony.’ He Had Notes.
Sign up for our newsletter here to get these stories direct to your inbox.
in your life?
