VAUGHAN, REBECCA

Rebecca Vaughan was born and raised in Denver, CO. She has lived in the Netherlands and Canada. She received her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University and BFA cum laude in Sculpture at the University of Colorado, Boulder. To more fully pursue her art career, she departed working in non-profits and has instructed part-time for the Kansas City Art Institute, JCCC and RMCAD.
Rebecca Vaughan is a member of ArtNauts, an art collective which exhibits only in countries experiencing conflict and contention. She previously served as the Artistic Director of PlatteForum, a non-profit which hosts artists-in-residence from all over the world. While in residence, the artists are paired with under-resourced youth to create artworks which address topics of social justice and community. She recently served as the Program Director for the Art Students League of Denver and was the Chair of Fine Arts and Head of Sculpture at the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design. She held a residency as a Resource Artist at Redline Contemporary Art Center from 2011-2013. Previously she worked as the project manager for Ann Hamilton's 2008 Circles of O performance, and assisted in other projects in Dialog: City, a city- wide arts event for the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver.

She recently exhibited her work in a solo show at the 39th Sarajevo Winter Arts Festival in Bosnia and Herzigovina and will be included in Redline's 15X Anniversary exhibition at the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art. She has shown widely in the Colorado region as well as in New York, Palestine, Mexico, Canada, China and Columbia. Her work has been in publications including the Chicago Art Journal and KnitKnit. Vaughan has received state grants from the Colorado Council on the Arts and Humanities and the Ohio Arts Council.

S T A T E M E N T
The primary inspirational source and content of my artwork has centered around the cultural and biological methods by which we regulate and maintain our social relationships. Exploring as direct, as intimate a relationship to audience members as I can, I create sculptural installations, gouache paintings and evolving relational projects. Often these include such elements as those of gender-specific experiences: hand-knitting and needlework techniques, fabrics, electronics, construction tools and equipment. I also employ other media, such as pheromones, heat and electricity, which are intended to enact human intimate association. My intent is to explore the unique resonance that exists with lovers, the unloved, those that are too repulsive to love, unfound biological mothers, unwanted children and any others that seek to express desire or connection, but miss their mark. My work also employs communication devices and broadcasting networks, either through electronic devices or by simulating biology. The flavor of my work is often manipulative and sentimental.

http://www.rebeccavaughan.com