1 Carrie Lederer ▪ [email protected]
SOLO EXIBITIONS
2024 Portraits of Nature: Entangled, Entwined, Terry A. Francois Building, San Francisco, CA 2022 Nature’s Mysterious Conglomerates, FARM Projects, Wellfleet, Massachusetts Under the Wide Sky We Gather, Forth Wall Gallery, Oakland, California 2017 Musings on the Force of Nature: Vistas & Tableaux, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2016 SUPERnatural!, Cabrillo College Art Gallery, Aptos, CA 2015 Wondrous Strange, Diablo Valley College Art Gallery, Pleasant Hill, CA 2012 The Daily Entwine: Meditations and Musings on Earth, Sanchez Art Gallery; Pacifica, CA 2011 New Work 2011, William Havu Gallery, Denver Colorado 2006 Above and Below: a site-specific installation, 101 California Street, San Francisco, CA 2005 The Sound of Green, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2004 Offering: An installation of painting and sculpture, Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2003 Tangle in the Garden, Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA 2000 Inside the Snowman, Fresno City College, Fresno, CA 1999 Snowmen in Summer, John F. Kennedy University, Berkeley, CA 1993 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1989 New Work, Iannetti Lanzone Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1987 de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara, CA
1986 Pictogram Gallery, New York City, NY
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Artists Gallery, San Francisco CA 1985 Introductions, Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, CA
PUBLIC ART COMMISSIONS, AWARDS, CATALOGUES
2024 City of Walnut Creek, Big Belly Container Project, Nature’s Mysterious Conglomerates (Song in Green). 2023 City of San Francisco, SF Art Commission; Public Art 2D Purchase Award: 49 Van Ness Building, SF, CA.
City of Sunnyvale, Public Art Commission: Sunnyside of My Abstracted Garden; City Hall, Sunnyvale, CA. 2022 Imagery Estate Winery, Painting purchase and wine label commission, Glen Ellen, CA. 2022 Mozaik Philanthropy, Artist’s Grant Award, Ecosystem X, Los Angeles, CA 2021 Menlo Church Teen Center, Public Art Mural Comission, Under the Great Sky We Gather, (5’ x 15’) 2021 City of Palo Alto, Lost in my Abstract Garden, Public Art Mural Commission (8’ x 12’) 2021 Hudson Valley Seed Company, Commission: Artist Seed Packs Program, Accord, NY 2019 FaceBook Artist in Residence, Mural Commission, Land of Magic is Watching; (10’ x 40’); Fremont, CA 2019 Bakar Precision Cancer Medicine Building at UCSF, Painting Commission, San Francisco, CA 2017 Musings on the Force of Nature: Vistas and Tableaux, Catalogue, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, SF, CA, 2017 2016 MFA Never, Root Division, exhibition catalogue, San Francisco, CA 2015 MUSES, Michigan State University Arts and Letters Publication, East Lansing, MI 2011 Age of Wonder: Artists Engaged with the Natural World, Catalogue, Turtle Bay Museum, Redding, CA 2011 Art On First, Napa Art Commission, Napa, CA; Installation: Wondrous Strange. 2009 Found Object Art II; Shiffer Publishing, Ltd., Edited by Tina Skinner; Atglen, PA. 2006 Art Source Public Art Commission, Installation: Offering, San Francisco, CA 2005 New American Painting, No. 61, The Open Studio Press 1993 Eureka Fellowship, Fleishhacker Foundation Individual Artist Award, San Francisco, CA 1987 Flannagan Fellowship, Artist Award and Residency, Kala Institute, Berkeley, CA 1985 Exhibition Award, California Works, Sacramento, CA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 Odd, Inspired & Sublime, A 2024 Culmination; The Fourth Wall Gallery, Oakland, CA.
Wonderful Green, MVA Gallery, Bethlehem, PA
2023 Alchemy, online exhibition, Create!, United Kingdom.
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2 Exhibition Continues, FARM Projects, Wellfleet, MA
2022 Break of Day, Edge of Night, The Painting Center, New York, New York Ecosystem X, Moziak Philanthropy, Los Angeles, CA
Eye Want Candy, Melhop Gallery, Zephar Cove, NV
Hudson Valley Seed Co: A Profile of the 2022 Seed Pack Art, Cornell Creative Art Center, Cornell, NY 2021 Of Modest Mystics: Diminutive Contemporary Works, IDOLWILD Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Affinities: Paintings by Carrie Lederer and Lenard Rosenfeld, Pastine Projects, San Francisco, CA Real or Imagined, Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro, MA
West Coast Biennial, Turtle Bay Museum, Redding, CA
Pocketful of Posies, Gearbox Gallery, Oakland, CA
Destination Unknown, Perch Art House, San Francisco, CA Art in the Age of Corona, New Museum Los Gatos, Los Gatos, CA 2020 Wild Tangents, online exhibition curated by Ann Trinca (SF, CA) and Catelyn Booth (NY,NY) Gathering Project, Patricia Rovzar Gallery, Seattle , WA and Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID Wild Land, Jen Tough Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Night Skies, R Gallery, Boulder, CA
Left Coast, Marin MOCA, Novato, CA
Bird, Nest, Nature, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA
Eco Consciousness, EcoArt Space, Santa Fe, NM (online)
2018 Cultivated Nature, Mills Bldg., Curated by ArtSource, SF, CA Arousing Biophilia: Exploring Art, Nature and Science, Art Ark Gallery, San Jose, CA 2017 Justice and Liberty for Some, three locations: Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; *San Francisco Art Commission Gallery; Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA Detritus, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA Back to the Garden, Root Division, San Francisco, CA
2016 Palette, Ampersand International Arts, San Francisco, CA Paper, Toby’s Gallery, Pt. Reyes Station, CA
2015 Everybody’s Ocean, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and Science, Santa Cruz, CA 2014 Good Mail Day, Airstream Gallery, Dover, New Hampshire (n)Collage, Petaluma Art Center, Petaluma, CA
Bloom, Pence Gallery, UC Davis, Davis, CA
Flora & Fauna, Grey Loft Gallery, Oakland, CA
2013 Just Add Water, Studio Quercus, Oakland, CA
Origins, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
Twenty, William Havu Gallery, Denver, Colorado
Space, Studio Quercus, Oakland, CA
2012 Let Strange Flowers Burst Forth, a.Muse Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2011 Age of Wonder: Artists Engaged with the Natural World, Turtle Bay Museum, Redding, CA (catalogue) San Francisco Art Fair, Fort Mason, William Havu Gallery, SF, CA Shine, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
Art On First, Napa Art Commission, Napa, CA
2010 A Garden of Earthly Delights, Root Division, San Francisco, CA Three Artists from the Bay Area, Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia Summer Selections, William Havu Gallery, Denver Colorado Life.Forms, Haldan Gallery, Lake Tahoe College, South Lake Tahoe, CA 2009 (un)Natural, di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa, CA 2008 Earth Days, Oakopolis, Oakland, CA
Biophilia, Root Division, San Francisco, CA
Patterns and Portraits, K Gallery, Alameda, CA
2007 Green is the New Black, Melanie Cooper Gallery, Chicago, Ill 2006 Our Planet, Our Home; SFMOMA Artists’s Gallery, San Francisco, CA Attachment 11
3 Modern Edens: Permutations of Paradise, SPUR Projects, Portola Valley, CA 2005 Fabulandia, The Lab, San Francisco, CA
Ornamentation: The Art of Desire, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA Thirty Something, 30 years of Printmaking; SFMOMA Artists Gallery / Kala Printmaking Institute, SF, CA Monotype Marathon 2005, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA 2004 Hidden Order: Pattern Content in Contemporary Abstraction, Oakland Art Gallery, Oakland, CA 2003 20th Anniversary Invitational, SFMOMA Art Artist’s Gallery, S.F., CA Avant-Garden, Torpedo Factory Art Center, Target Gallery, Alexandria, Virginia 2002 Watermark 2002: works on paper, Studio 107, Whiteville, North Carolina 2001 Wendy Sussman Memorial Benefit, U.C. Berkeley Art Gallery, Berkeley, CA 2000 Behind the Walls, Lawton Gallery, University of Green Bay, Green Bay, Wisconsin 1999 ana 28, Holter Museum of Art, Helena, Montana
1997 Three Bay Area Artists, Diablo Valley College, Concord, CA 1993 Fleishhacker Painting Fellowships, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA 1992 Testing the Market, Untitled Gallery, San Francisco, CA. 1991 Small Works: Summer Invitational, Cavin Morris Gallery, New York, New York 1991 Five Bay Area Painters, Jennifer Pauls Gallery, Sacramento, CA Artists’ Views on Romance, Monterey Museum, Monterey, CA 1990 Places in the Mind, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA 1989 Selections from the di Rosa Collection, Rasmussen Art Gallery, Angwin, CA Home Show, Falkirk Cultural Center, San Rafael, CA.
1989 Invitational Exhibition, Napa Fine Arts Gallery, Napa, CA.
Mono Types, Iannetti Lanzone Gallery, San Francisco, CA Scratching the Surface, Visual Art Center of Alaska, Anchorage, Alaska 1988 Works on Paper, Roy Boyd Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
10th Anniversary Invitational, SFMOMA Artist’s Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
Contra Costa Contemporary Art Collections, Hearst Art Gallery, Lafayette, CA. 1987 Six from the San Francisco Bay Area, Iannetti Lanzone, San Francisco, CA Contemporary Women Painters, Fresno Art Museum, Fresno, CA.
Immersion (collab. w/ Matthews Dance Co.), New Performance Gallery, S.F., CA.
Ann Flannagan Fellowship Awards, Kala Institute, Berkeley, CA 1986 Small Works, Ev Gallery, New York City, NY
Works on Paper, Pictogram Gallery, New York City
1985 Colors, Marks, Patterns, Planes, Zoller Gallery, Penn State University, Philadelphia, PA Belief and Disbelief, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA Crosscurrents, Sandy Webster Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Modern Mythology, Pictogram Gallery, New York City, NY
Dance Definitions, Transamerica Corporation, S.F. and Los Angeles, CA Ex.pres.sion, San Jose Art League, San Jose, CA
California Works, Sacramento State Faire, Sacramento, CA 1984 Paper in Particular, Columbia College, Columbia Missouri 1981 Figurative Works, Vertex Gallery, Taos, New Mexico Xerox and Beyond, LaMamelle Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
The Exchange Show, Franz Mehring Gallery, Berlin, West Germany
BIBLOGRAPHY
Create! Magazine, Artist Profile and Interview; Issue #44; 2024 Mary Corbin, 48Hills, SF News and Culture; Finding Nature’s Pitch in the Macrocosms of Carrie Lederer, January 27, 2023.
Abraham Storer, The Provincetown Independent, Finding Beauty and Menace in the Natural World: Carrie Lederer Discovers Inspiration in Nature’s Extremes, September 22, 2022.
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4 Heather Zimmerman, The Almanac, New Non-Profit Brings More Art to Menlo Park, January 28, 2022.
FaceBook Artist in Residency documentary video: The Land of Magic Awaits, 2020.
Julia Couzens, SquareCylinder, Musings on the Force of Nature, December 2017.
Barbara Morris, SquareCylinder, Detritus @ San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, August, 2017 Amy Plesant, Huffington Post, Artist’s Mobilize: With Liberty and Justice for Some, An Exhibition on Immigration, 1/19/17.
MUSES, Michigan State University Arts and Letters Publication, East Lansing, MI.
Maria Porges, SquareCylinder, Wondrous Strange: Carrie Lederer at Diablo Valley College, Nov. 1, 2015.
Marcia Tanner, Berkeleyside, Berkeley Art Center showcases sculpture in new show, May 7, 2013.
Alex Bigman, East Bay Express, Origins: Elemental Forms in Nature, May, 2013.
Jack Fischer; Scene Magazine, (feature 4 page article) Carrie’s World, An Artist and Curator balances Careers— and a Universe where Nature and Artifice Co-exist; Fall, 2010.
Diablo Magazine, Top Tickets, February, 2009.
Art Business.Com, di Rosa preserve: (un)Natural, February 21, 2009 Gretchen Giles, The Bohemian, Spring Fervor, April 15, 2009 Mary Anne Kluth, Artweek, (un)Natural at the di Rosa Preserve, June 2009.
Sonoma Magazine, Manuel R. Merjil, Art From di Rosa to SVMA, summer 2009.
Alameda Magazine, Eclectic Art: Patterns and Portraits, January 2008 DeWitt Cheng, East Bay Express, Still Shocking: Artists uncover new things in Nature, 2008 Hiya Swahuyser, SF Weekly, See/Be Seen, Holy Terra, Planet of the Arts, September, 2005 Sharon Mizota, SF Weekly, Imaginary Forces, A look at Alternate Universes, November, 2005 Alison Bing, Artweek, “Hidden Order” at the Oakland Art Gallery, November 2004, vol. 35, Issue 9 Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland Gallery Seeks Hidden Order, August 28, 2004 Barbara Morris, Artweek, Carrie Lederer at Mills College Art Museum, November 2003, vol. 34, issue 9 Mark Van Proyan, Art Issues Magazine, January/February 2000 Anita Amirrezvana, Contra Consta Times, Spotlight Calendar, October 29, 1999 Stephan Yafa, Making A Stand: Five Women From Spark to Fire, Diablo Magazine, May 1998 Jureria Aleem, Three Artists Paint Nature, The DVC Inquirer, October 6, 1995.
Kenneth Baker, Bay Area Painters (Eureka Award) San Francisco Chronicle, November 28, 1993 Staff Writer, Falkirk curator at SFMOMA Rental Gallery, Marin New Pointer, May 26, 1993 Anna Gordon, A Broken World, Artweek, September 26, 1991 Christine Tamblyn, San Francisco: Iannetti Lanzone Gallery, ARTnews, November, 1989 Kenneth Baker, Summer Show Surprises, San Francisco Chronicle, August 26, 1989 Dorothy Burkhart, Thoughts in Need of Provocation?, San Jose Mercury News, November 24, 1989 Dorothy Burkhart, Mixing Metaphors and Metamorphosis, San Jose Mercury News, December 1, 1989 Terri Cohn, Looking Homeward, Artweek, March 18, 1989
Mary Wallis, Downtown Art Gallery Unveils Invitational, Napa Register, January 5, 1989 PANZ Corporation, Contemporary Women Artists Calendar, 1988 Ann Hurley, Feminine Fantasies, San Francisco Bay Guardian, January 13, 1988 Berkeley Monthly, Front Cover of magazine (full/color), Vol. XVLLL, #3, December 1987 Staff Writer, Art at Heart Gallery lent by Lamorindans, Contra Costa Sun, November 2, 1988 Marian Ciriscioli, California Women Artists, Horizon Magazine, June, 1987 Mark Van Proyan, Enigmatic Images and Suggestive Forms. Artweek, December 26, 1987 Kenneth Baker, Vague Discontent of the Under discovered, San Francisco Chronicle, June 18, 1987 Dorothy Burkhart, de Saisset Features Three for the Show, San Jose Mercury News, June 26, 1987 Kenneth Baker, Three Painters at the de Saisset, San Francisco Chronicle, July 25, 1987 Biography cont.
Staff Writer, Images of Self in the de Saisset Exhibit, Santa Clara Spectrum, June 17, 1987 David Gere, S.F. Premiers Worthy of Dancer’s Circuit, Oakland Tribune, July 25, 1987.
Allan Ulrich, Tension and Logic Short-Circuit New Dance Offering, S.F. Examiner, July 25, 1987 Marilyn Tucker, Collaboration Smothers Choreography, San Francisco Chronicle, July 25, 1987 Attachment 11
5 Toshiyasu Ohi, News From Abroad, Bijutsu Techno, Tokyo, Japan, September, 1986 Charles Schere, Open Studios Displays its Finest Art, Oakland Tribune, May 5, 1986 Egret Publications, East Village: A Guide, 1985 and 1986 Andrea Liss, San Francisco Introductions ’85, ARTnews, October, 1985 Kenneth Baker, Two Promising Introductions, San Francisco Chronicle, July 25, 1985 Dorothy Burkhart, Disquieting Presences, Knockout Paintings in S.F., San Jose Mercury News, July 6, 1985 Alfred Jan, Four Approaches to the Figure, Artweek, March 16, 1985 Dorothy Burkhart, Critics Choice, San Jose Mercury News, March 3, 1985
COLLECTIONS
Montage Health Art Center, Monterey, CA
City of Sunnyvale, CA
Facebook, Fremont, CA
City of Palo Alto, CA
City of San Francisco, CA
Elevate Art, Menlo Church Teen Center, Menlo Park, CA
Imagery Estate Winery, Glen Ellen, CA
Hudson Valley Seed Company Collection, Accord, New York Bakar Precision Cancer Medicine Building at UCSF, San Francisco, CA Stanford University Medical Center, Menlo Park, CA
First Western Trust Bank, San Francisco, CA
di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa CA
Oakland Museum of California, Oakland CA
Risk Management Solutions, Newark, CA
Frank and Jessica Lonergan Collection, Portola Valley, CA Robert Allen/Claudia Mahecha Design, Larkspur, CA
Prudential Insurance Co, New York, New York
Estate of Ellen Davies Rush, San Francisco, CA
Estate of Modesto Lanzone, San Francisco, CA
Estate of Pasquali Iannetti, San Francisco, CA
Susan Swig Watkins Collection, San Francisco, CA
Beverly and George James Collection, San Francisco, CA
Sweetwater Development Incorporated, Sacramento, CA
The Conn Collection, San Francisco, CA
Theresa Di Suvero Collection, San Francisco, CA
Niehaus, Rhan, Wong, Inc., San Francisco, CA
EDUCATION
Michigan State University: BFA, Sculpture
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Carrie Lederer Image List
Corn Palace Park, Sunnyvale, CA
Image 1:
Menlo Church Teen Center, Commissioned by Elevate Art, Menlo Park, CA Under the Wide Sky We Gather, 2021, 60” x 180”, painting printed on vinyl. Budget: $5,000.
I worked closely with Elevate Art’s selection committee to develop an image specifically for this project and location. Because the mural is located at a busy downtown intersection, we wanted an image that was engaging, brilliant in palette, a family friendly narrative that captures pedestrian attention, and reads both up-close and from afar. My work portrays aspects of the garden informed by nature’s riotous colorful beauty, or the deep dark space of our universe.
The mural is located at 934 Santa Cruz, Menlo Park, CA.
Top image: Mural design
Bottom left: Young patron giving her family a tour of the mural, pointing out birds, squirls and a fox hiding in plain site.
Bottom right: detail of bird in nest.
Image 2:
Facebook, Fremont, CA, Artist in Residence Program
The Land of Magic Awaits, 2019, 120” x 480”, mixed media installation. Budget: $27,000 In late 2019 I walked into Facebook’s new, spacious Fremont, CA campus and brought them The Land of Magic Awaits, a turbulent, tangled universe of land and sky. The Facebook mural installation is 10’ x 40’ and includes a playful variety of media including paint, glitter, glass eyes, painted objects, constructed nature, yarn, pompoms, and fabric installed onto a unique wallpaper. Inspired by my work in the garden, this project captures the predictable, yet unpredictable twists and turns of the natural world. As is the case with much of my work, the mural includes a “Find the Fox” treasure hunt.
Image 3:
Two details of the Facebook mural, which included hundreds of 3D objects, such as birds (shown here) that were painted to camouflage into the brightly colored weave of nature and pattern. Glass eyes were embedded into the starry skies, along with metallic threads and glitter.
Image 4:
San Francisco Art Commission Public Art Program, 2D Purchase Award, 49 Van Ness Building, Deep in the Willowwacks II, 2023, Acryla Gouache, glitter ink, metallic thread on paper, 29” x 36 ½ “. Budget $8,500 I was awarded the San Francisco Art Commission Purchase Prize, which placed one of my major artworks in the new LEED Certified 49 Van Ness municipal office building, home to numerous city departments.
Image 5:
Palo Alto, CA, CalTrans Station; City of Palo Alto Public Art Program commission.
Lost in My Abstracted Garden, 2021, 96” x 108”, Archival pigment on aluminum. Budget: $2500 Lost in My Abstract Garden was commissioned by the City of Palo Alto for their cultural program Uplift, to enliven the City’s downtown commercial district during the height of the pandemic shutdown. The interactive nature of the mural encourages viewers to knit together their own stories and interpretation, with the hope that each time they see the mural something new will likely be discovered. Lost in My Abstracted Garden is located at the Cal Trans Station on California Blvd.
Image 6:
Pedestrian at Palo Alto CalTrans Station viewing the mural Lost in My Abstracted Garden.
Image 7:
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Bakar Precision Cancer Medicine Building, UCSF, 3rd St, San Francisco. Private development public art commission.
Magic in the Hinterland, 2018, 45” x 38”, Acryla Gouache on paper. Budget: $8,000 A set of two paintings titled Magic in the Hinterland I and Magic in the Hinterland II were commissioned for the UCSF Hospital Pediatric Ward. The imagery in these pieces is seemingly chaotic with a lively terrain is that’s bursting with activity. As a strategy to encourage engagement and discovery for viewers of all ages, I embedded a set of six foxes (all in different poses) into the weave of flora, color and pattern.
Image 8:
City of Sunnyvale, City Hall, Sunnyvale, CA
The Sunnyside of My Abstracted Garden, 72” x 108”, Tapestry, neon paint, yarn, embroidery threads, buttons, beads, glass eyes, glitter. Budget: $20,000
My commissioned tapestry created for Sunnyvale’s LEED Certified City Hall provides a visual experience that is rich and textured. The vibrant and welcoming imagery animates the community space of City Hall, draws the public into a visual dialog, and adds a friendly warmth to the space. The narrative is a bright weave of nature- based imagery, both enchanting and accessible.
The piece was woven in Brussels, Belgium, and once it was back in the studio I enhanced the surface with neon pigments, metallic threads, buttons, beads and more. Activating the surface with a variety of mixed media f
urther heightens the viewer’s experience and offers new discoveries at every viewing.
Top image: Full view of Tapestry
Bottom left: White buttons, neon yarns
Middle: Yarn pom-poms
Right: Glass beads
Image 9:
S
tudio artwork: Nature’s Mysterious Conglomerates (Bird and her Song in Green), 2024 , Acryla Gouache, fabric, glitter ink, yarn, thread on paper. $6,500
This painting is an example of my current studio work. The tapestry-like format of this painting is simultaneously ordered and in disarray, realistic and abstract. There many discoveries to be made—can you find Bird and her Song in Green? Viewers can follow color lines and patterns to discover nature's connections and new pockets of activity, just as we do when we observe the natural world around us.
Image 10
Top Image: Detail of studio work that portrays the dynamic weave of flora and fauna in my paintings. I like the work t
o encourage viewers to interact with the work and find the many natural elements that are hiding in plain sight.
With this work I’m interested in micro and macro perspectives to convey the bold and delicate forms that exist in the mysterious realms that surround us.
Bottom Image: Mosaic study, Birdy and Bunny, glass, marbles, blue grout.
To close on a personal note: my daily, up-close encounter with nature is the fifty-foot journey through our family garden, from my home to the studio. For me, the garden becomes a metaphor for the universe. I am continually captured by nature’s sheer exuberance—a spectacle of complexity—beautiful, simple and haphazard.
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City of Sunnyvale, Corn Palace Park
Bench Proposal by Carrie Lederer
The Land of Magic: Garden in the Cosmos
Corn Palace Park will be a civic oasis of green where visitors can relax and play—a place to enjoy time away from the hustle and bustle of Silicon Valley. Its name is a reminder of another time, when orchards and fruit stands were part of the community fabric. In this proposal, I will expand on my application to the January RFQ that is shaping Corn Palace’s future. I have reflected on the current state of the area, as well as its history, to conceptualize this artwork specifically for a bench in Corn Palace Park.
BENCH CONCEPT
The public artwork that I’m proposing is called The Land of Magic: Garden in the Cosmos. The concept is a weave of imagery that offers a portal into a magical land—the natural world we all share, and it also includes a poignant nod to Sunnyvale’s agricultural history. It invites visitors to discover what’s hiding in plain sight and to be transported to another time and space.
The bench is chock-full of visual prompts that take visitors on a journey across the land and cosmos. From a distance, the bold, cheerful colors are like a beacon—they entice visitors to come closer . Up-close, there are many elements to discover across the bench’s surface. Some are
camouflaged, inspiring a visual scavenger hunt; there are surprises to find with every visit. Bright and cheerful clusters of apricots are sprinkled throughout, as a visual connection to Sunnyvale’s early economic development in Silicon Valley.
A fox, some birds, and a squirrel activate the surreal
landscape and are surrounded with a flurry of color, pattern, and texture. The sky and waters of the bench are full of stars, constellations, and even flying saucers—all are part of the tapestry-like format that is bursting with energy.
DETAIL: Apricots and Flying Saucer in the Cosmos
The Land of Magic: Garden in the Cosmos, 2025, 72” x 18”, High-fired Porcelain Tile Attachment 11
My intention with this artwork is to imagine the earth’s mystical wonders, and my hope is that the visitors will be drawn into an enchanting wondrous fairy forest. I’m fascinated by nature’s mycorrhizal networks—threadlike connectors that form plant-to-plant exchanges of nutrients and water—that make life possible. Here in The Land of Magic, the trees whisper secrets carried by the wind, their roots entangled with the very fabric of the universe. Fireflies flicker like fallen stars, guiding wanderers through mossy pathways and glowing blooms.
THEME
My work is inspired by a curiosity about nature
and our connection to it, and I believe this
connection is important to many in the
community. My imagery reflects the vital
relationship between land, water, and sky and
the beauty and fragile state of the natural
world. The weave of activity that visitors find on
the bench mimics the kaleidoscope that is all
around us. We must slow down and take time
to reflect if we want to experience this Land of
Magic.
DETAIL: Wolf with Bird exploring the Land of Magic
DETAIL: Fox wandering into the Cosmos
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PROCESS / MATERIALS
My artwork will be created with tiles produced by Unique Tiles, a U.K. company that has been a part of a vast array of successful projects—both commercial and fine art. My image will be transferred onto high-grade porcelain body tiles, which are fired at high temperatures of 1650 F, 900 C, ensuring a durable product that can handle extreme climates, both heat (up to 1292 F, 700 C) and cold (tiles are frost proof and will not crack).
The tiles are resistant to UV rays and are guaranteed not to fade for up to 50 years. They have a glossy, scratchproof surface and graffiti can be removed without harm to the tile surface. The tiles are suitable for high traffic areas, and the surface is smooth and comfortable to sit on. I will use a pre-fabricated cement bench as the substrate. Once the bench is buckled onto its footings, the tile composition will be installed onsite. Depending on the type of bench, the image will be 72” long and 24” (or 18”) wide.
Cement bench: 72” x 24” (or 18”)
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Right end of Bench
Right end bench imagery
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Left end of bench
Left end bench imagery
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Top view of Land of Magic: Garden in the Cosmos
Front View of Bench
Test Tiles
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CULTURAL FIT
My work appeals to visitors of all ages and walks of life and celebrates what we all share—a connection to nature. My work encourages fun and play, and I am also making a statement—a call to action—that asks viewers to tread lightly on our fragile planet.
My background and experience with public art development also makes me a fit for this project and includes public art commissions for Facebook and the cities of Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Sunnyvale, and San Francisco.
On a personal note: my daily, up-close encounter with nature is the fifty-foot journey through our family garden, from my home to the studio. For me, the garden becomes a metaphor for the universe. I am continually captured by nature’s sheer exuberance—a spectacle of complexity— beautiful, simple, and haphazard.
Thank you for considering my application. I am hopeful that I will have the opportunity to share my journey and interpretation of our natural world with the visitors to Corn Palace Park. “There are two ways to live. One as if nothing is a miracle.
The other is as if everything is a miracle.”
—Albert Einstein
Carrie Lederer 510-599-3610 www.carrielederer.com @carrielederer DETAIL: Squirrel with sound waves in Land of Magic
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