The direction of my artwork is rooted in addressing notions of expectation and cultural attitudes as it defines our relationship to the natural world.
I find myself drawn to the manipulation of natural materials as a metaphor for society’s dependence on nature and ultimately its influence over it. My choice of familiar materials and subjects, clearly reference the natural world while simultaneously invoking their cultural identity. In doing so, I look to point out the obvious, yet often ignored connections that exist between the natural world and the cultural attitudes we project on it.
Travis Graves Installation Indivisible, Mayer Gallery, Turchin Center ©Jaime Johnson
About the artist
Travis Graves has been a faculty member in the Department of Art and Design at East Tennessee State University since 2005. He attended Iowa State University as an undergraduate where he received his BFA in drawing, painting and printmaking. He received his Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin – Madison where his primary focused of study was sculpture. As a graduate student, Graves was awarded the International Sculpture Center’s “Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award” in 2003. Before joining the faculty at ETSU he taught at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design.
Additional resources
- Flickr – Installation images
- Travis Graves’s Website