Rachel Mica Weiss (b. Rockville, 1986) is a sculptor and installation artist based in the Hudson Valley. Weiss earned a BA in psychology from Oberlin College, an MFA in sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her work reconstitutes various boundaries—architectural, topographical, and psychological—to demonstrate their impact upon us. Her sculptures, often scaled to the human body, combine the visual language of textiles with the density of stone and cast forms—components that balance uneasily, vie for dominance, or are inextricably intertwined. Weiss’s work draws attention to the constraints within our physical and psychological spaces, asking us to reimagine those so-called barriers as flexible, passable, porous.
Solo exhibitions include Eroded Topographies III, Hines +555 Greenwich Avenue, New York, USA (2023); Disappearing Topography, Google, New York, USA (2023); Infinite Arches, City of Oklahoma City, USA (2023); Undulating Waterline II, Brookfield, Brooklyn, USA (2022); Gravity, Here, Pittsburgh, USA (2022); Slippery Yoke, Carvalho Park, Brooklyn, USA (2022); Unbounded II, City of Lewes Public Art Council, Lewes, England (2021); The Wild Within – PLATFORM 27, de Cordova Sculpture Park & Museum, , Lincoln, England (2020); Boundless Topographies, Gates Foundation: University of Washington, Seattle, USA (2020); Obejcts of Desire, Super Dutchess, New York USA (2020); Pecto, Verso, Pittsburgh International Airport, USA (2019); Undulating Waterline, Boston Consulting Group, Miami, Florida, USA (2019); Held Together, Canregie Mellon university, Pittsburgh, USA (2019); The Supernal Plane, Carvalho Park, Brooklyn, USA (2019); A.I.R Program. Eroded Topographies, Facebook, New York, USA (2019); Reflected Topographies, Airbnb, Seattle , USA (2018); 44 Tilted Planes, Boston Consulting Group, Boston, USA (2018); (Limits, LMAK Gallery, New York, USA (2018); Encinitas, Lux Art Institute, New York, USA (2018); Liminal, LMAK Gallery, New York , USA (2017); Immanent Topographies Art in Embassies Program: U.S Embassy, US State Department, Bishek, Krygystan, (2017); Draped Arches in Gold, One Allen Center: Brookfield, Houston, USA (2017); 525W52, Handel Architects & Taconic Investment Partners, New York, USA (2017); Unbounded & Breaching, 1 Hotel, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn, USA (2017); The Ashland, Inverted Arches in Gold, SPAN Architecture & Gotham Organisation, Brooklyn, USA (2016); Wall of Portraits, Media Math: 4 World Trade Centre, New York, USA (2015); Counter Measures, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly USA (2015); in Place, Fridman Gallery, New York, USA (2014); Engulfing the Elusory, San Francisco Arts Commission, San Francisco, USA (2013).
Selected Group exhibitions include (Upcoming), Where the Wild Roses Grow, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Schloss Görne, Germany (2023); NADA, New York, USA (2023); Creatures of Sense, Carvalho Park, Brookly, USA (2023); Homespun, Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, USA (2023); By a Thread, cur. Lisa Panzera, Shirley Filterman Art Center, BMCC, CUNY, New York, USA (2022); Glyphadelphia, cur. Carl d’Alvia, Hesse Fkatow, New York, USA (2021); Artists Supporting NADA Exhibition, Charles Moffett Gallery, New York (online),USA (2020); In with the New, cur. Art of Choice, Artual Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon (2019); Ariadne Unravelling, Asya Geisberg Gallery, New York, USA (2019); Surface Tension, E. Tay gallery, New York, USA (2017); Say Yes, cur. Kimia Ferdowsi Kline, Elaine L. Jacob Gallery, Wayne State University Detroit, USA (2017); Sculpture, LMAK Gallery, New York, USA (2016); OnSite Katonah, Kaontah Museum of Art, Katonah, USA (2016); 30 Under 30ish, Victori + Mo, Brooklyn, USA (2016); 9 Sculptures, BravinLee Programs, New York, USA (2015).
Highlights and Collections
She is the recipient of: an Investing in Professional Artists Grant from the Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments (2020) and a San Francisco Foundation Murphy and Cadogan Fellowship (2011); she was named a Hopper Prize finalist (2019). She has been invited to the Fountainhead Residency, Miami, FL (2020), funded by the Heinz Endowments; 100 W Corsicana Artist and Writer Residency, Corsicana, TX (2020), funded by a Navarro Council for the Arts Grant; Lux Art Institute Residency, Encinitas, CA (2018); and Marble House Project Residency, Dorset, VT (2015), among other residencies.
Weiss’ work is included in several public and private collections such as: the US Embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; Microsoft Corporate Collection; Boston Consulting Group Corporate Collection; Media Math Corporate Collection; Sloan Kettering Memorial Cancer Center, as well as Francis J. Greenberger Collection, The Bunker Artspace Museum and The Weissman Collection.