Isabella Whitfield (b. 1998; Centreville, VA) is a multidisciplinary artist who works in collaboration with manufactured and natural environments. After graduating from the University of Virginia in 2020, she completed a year-long postgraduate program as an Aunspaugh Art Fellow. Whitfield has exhibited major works at New City Arts, Ruffin Gallery, the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Museum, and InLight 2021 with 1708 Gallery. She has participated in residencies with the Visual Arts Center of Richmond, OxBow School of Art, and Pyramid Atlantic Art Center.
Artist statement
Isabella Whitfield’s artistic practice encompasses site-responsive installation, papermaking, sculpture, and landscaping. She makes meditative, performative work that considers the contradictory relationships between the environment, physical homeland, human labor, and historical object functionality. Whitfield’s projects often contain an act of collaborative generosity, inviting the viewer to become part of the work through physical immersion or participatory artistic creation.
The process of creating installations adopts motions of repetitive labor, often presenting a challenge of physical endurance through performative digging, measuring, and stitching. Incorporating both ephemeral materials and sacred geometries, her work hinges on fragile precision and is expected to formally deteriorate over time. The inevitable decomposition of materials echo notions of life cycles and renewal; examining continuous de/reconstruction of self.