“Materials remember. They carry the trace of hands, the spirit of purpose, and the weight of history. To work with material is to work with time. When hands meet surface—wood, clay, paper, metal—past and present fold into one another. Material is not just substance; it is a witness, a collaborator, and a keeper of memory. 

Material Reverence explores how these artists honor the histories embedded within their medium and reveal what can emerge through the act of making. They draw close, attuned to the dialogue between touch and texture. They follow its pulse—the way it resists or yields, the way it carries the marks of past lives. Their work is not about mastery, but reverence—an acknowledgment that material is never inert, that it has a voice, that it remembers. They do not impose meaning; they uncover what is already there. In their hands, material is more than a means to an end—it is a record, a reckoning, a reverence.

Some materials bear the gravity of power—concrete, metal, glass, the architectural remnants of capitalism’s reach. Sam van Strien’s rubbings, weavings, and drawings document the afterlives of structures that have shaped the Tennessee Valley, asking whether architecture is truly what stands before us or what lingers in its memory. By engaging both the tangible remnants of buildings and their mediated images, van Strien’s work interrogates the forces of access, exclusion, and finance that shape these spaces. Johnny McCaffrey, too, sifts through material histories by reclaiming wood and remnants left behind, calling attention to the unseen forces that have shaped this region—corporate expansion, the commodification of craft, the erasure of generational knowledge.  By working intuitively with found materials—each bearing the weight of previous lives and labor—McCaffrey acts as both caretaker and collaborator, embracing craft as a form of preservation and resistance.

Other materials speak of intimacy—paper folded into vessels, metal layered into memory, clay shaped into ritual. Lela Arruza’s intricate origami sculptures, created through the repetitive process of Golden Venture folding, draw from histories of migration and resilience. Each vessel, composed of thousands of precisely folded pieces, embodies both personal identity and a deep exploration of community. Grant Turner layers metal, enamel, and digital processes to create vibrant, chaotic worlds where real life, dreams, and everything in-between collide—bold, lively stories in which turmoil and tenderness, heartache and hope, buzz with renewed energy. His laborious enameling process fuses layers of powdered glass onto metal, creating luminous surfaces that contrast with the unruly dynamism of his compositions. Breana Ferreira’s intricately adorned ceramic forms invite tactile engagement—offering the pleasures of touch, of holding, of presence. Embracing a maximalist aesthetic, she layers texture, color, and imagery to explore the intimate relationship between function and form. Her work positions ceramics as active participants in routine and ritual, where celebration serves as a form of care.

To revere material is to believe it holds more than surface—to understand that within a fold, a fracture, a patina, there is history; there is life. These artists do not simply manipulate material; they listen. They gather what has been cast aside. They unearth the echoes embedded in matter.”

- Kelsie Conley, Assistant Curator, Knoxville Museum of Art