Photo Credit: Lisa Adams
Artist Statement:
I transform discarded aluminum beverage cans into woven forms that evoke ecosystems in states of growth, adaptation, and uncertainty. Through processes of cutting, painting, and weaving, I develop material systems that translate patterns of drought, flooding, temperature extremes, and seasonal cycles into physical experiences, allowing environmental change to be encountered through texture, color, reflection, and form rather than statistics alone.
At its core, my practice investigates how we live with uncertainty. Climate models, weather forecasts, and environmental records attempt to predict an unknowable future, yet the systems they describe continue to exceed expectations. I am interested in how material systems can hold this same tension between evidence and ambiguity, revealing both our desire to understand environmental change and the limits of what can ever be fully known. Rather than illustrating climate data, I use it as a generative framework, creating works that explore uncertainty as something experienced physically and emotionally rather than understood solely through information.
Artist Bio:
Christina Massey is a visual artist whose work transforms repurposed consumer materials—most notably discarded aluminum beverage cans—into woven sculptural forms, paintings, and installations. Through processes rooted in cutting, weaving, layering, and accumulation, her practice explores material transformation, environmental systems, and experiences of uncertainty.
Massey has received numerous awards, including a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, Brooklyn Arts Fund Grants, the FST StudioProject Fund Grant, and a SIP Fellowship at the EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. Recent solo exhibitions include Uncharted Growth at SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Changing the Course of Time at UrbanGlass, and Regenerative Nature at Montefiore Einstein’s Gallery for ARTFul Medicine. She has participated in residencies including PS122, Art Cake and Governors Island (4Heads).
Her work is held in public and private collections including the U.S. Department of State Art Bank Collection, Bank of America, UBS, and the Janet Turner Museum.
Massey earned her BFA from California State University, Chico, where she studied painting and theater set design. She currently maintains her studio practice in Brooklyn, New York.
Resume
SELECTED AWARDS & GRANTS
Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant - 2023
Brooklyn Arts Fund Award - 2019 -2022
FST StudioProject Award - 2019
The Puffin Foundation Grant, 2013 - 2017
AIM Finalist, Bronx Museum of Art, NY - 2007
Early Academic Awards upon request
RESIDENCIES
PS122, New York, NY, Artist-in-Residence - 2025-2026
Art Cake, Brooklyn, NY, Artist-in-Residence - 2023-2025
KUNSTRAUM Residency, Brooklyn, NY - 2022-2023
4Heads Governors Island Summer Artists Residency, New York, NY - 2022
SIP Fellowship, EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, New York, NY - 2017
Soaring Gardens Artists Retreat, Laceyville, PA - 2016
The Weaving Hand Studio Residency, Brooklyn, NY - 2016
SELECT SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 Art Cake, From One to Another, Brooklyn, NY
2025 The Adler Gallery, The Undulating Unknown, Port Washington, NY
2023 SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Uncharted Growth, curated by Etty Yaniv, New York, NY
2023 Montefiore Einstein, Regenerative Nature, curated by Jodi Moise, Bronx, NY
2022 UrbanGlass, Changing the Course of Time, Brooklyn, NY
2019 One Five One, Crafty Collusion, Durst Foundation Lobby Installation, New York, NY
2017 Noyes Art Museum, Art Garage, Mingled Mediums, Atlantic City, NJ
SELECT EARLY SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2014 World of Threads, Fiber Art Festival, Solo Shows, Toronto, Canada
2014 Dacia Gallery, Salva Veritate, New York, NY
2012 Corridor Gallery, RUSH Arts Gallery, Business & Pleasure, Brooklyn, NY
2011 McKinley Gallery, An Art Community, Reno, NV
2010 Taller Boricua, Meat Market, New York, NY
2007 Chashama Exhibition Space, Meat Market, New York, NY
TWO - THREE PERSON EXHIBITIONS:
2022 Hudson Guild Gallery II,FIRE & WATER, curated by Carol Salmanson, New York, NY
2017 Welancora Gallery / NU Hotel,Taking Shape, curated by Ivy Jones, Brooklyn, NY
2015 Chazan Gallery, Traverse/Texture, curated by Elena Lledo, Providence, RI
2014 Riverviews Artspace,Business & Bones, curated by Brooke Marcy, Lynchburg, VA
2014 Brooklyn Arts Cluster, Repurposed & Reimagined, Brooklyn, NY
2012 Ormond Memorial Art Museum,Women of the Uncommon Cloth, Ormond Beach, FL
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 McKenzie Fine Art, Material Witness, curated by Lesley Heller, New York, NY
2025 BravinLee Projects, Stay Frosty, New York, NY
2025 Elza Kayal Gallery, Piece by Piece, curated by Jaynie Crimmins, New York, NY
2025 Flinn Gallery, Biophilia, curated by Ellen Hawley, Greenwich, CT
2025 Norte Maar | CounterPointe12, Tipping Pointe, Brooklyn, NY (Collaboration with Juliette Rafael.)
2024 MOCA-LI, Eclectic Abstraction, curated by John Cino, Patchogue, NY
2024 Westbeth Gallery, There is a Crack in Everything, curated by Valérie Hallier, New York, NY
2024 M. David & Co, All Tomorrow’s Parties, curated by Michael David, Brooklyn, NY
2024 Galerie Lucida, Botanica, curated by Michael Paris Mazzio, Red Bank, NJ
2023 Westbeth Gallery, Unnatural Processes, curated by Valérie Hallier, New York, NY
2020 Monica King Contemporary, Spring into Action, New York, NY (online exclusive)
2019 LIU Humanities Gallery, Fauna & Mirrors, curated by Etty Yaniv, Brooklyn, NY
2019 The Clemente, TRILL MATRIX, curated by Elizabeth Riley, New York, NY
2018 Trestle Gallery, Small Works 2018, curated by Sharon Louden, Brooklyn, NY
2017 John Doe Gallery (now Carvalho Park), Nothing Twice, curated by Etty Yaniv, Brooklyn, NY
2017 DeCordova Sculpture Park & Museum, Abstract!, Lincoln, MA
2015 Smack Mellon, RESPOND, Brooklyn, NY
Additional group exhibitions available upon request
COLLECTIONS
Art Bank, U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C. (Permanent Collection)
Bank of America, Miami, FL
UBS, New York, NY
Credit Suisse, New York, NY
Janet Turner Museum, Chico, CA
PRESS & PUBLICATIONS
My Modern Met – Community-Driven Exhibition Transforms Cars into Vehicles for Site-Specific Art, by Eva Baron, 2025
Dream Idea Machine – Material Witness, by Efi Michalarou, 2025
Hyperallergic - Highlights from Brooklyn’s Sunset Park Open Studios, by Rhea Nayyar, 2023
Not Real Art – Christina Massey Weaves Otherworldly Ecological Wall Sculptures, 2022
Art Spiel – Eccentric Abstraction at MOCA-LI, by Etty Yaniv, 2024
Gallery & Studio – The Art of Recycling for the Planet, by Julia Szabo, 2023
EpicenterNYC – Featured Artist: Christina Massey, by Nitin Mukul, 2021
Art Spiel – Artists on Coping, by Etty Yaniv, 2020
Hyperallergic - The Other Art Fair is a Laid-Back Alternative to See the Work of Emerging Artists, by Deena ElGenaidi, 2019
Art Fuse – Trill Matrix at the Clemente, by Jonathan Goodman, 2019
Art Spiel– In Between Zones, by Etty Yaniv, 2019
Canvas Rebel – The Magical Moment When You Knew You Would Be a Creative or Artist, 2024
Shoutout LA – Meet Christina Massey | Artist, by Chris Miller, 2024
Salvage Podcast – Conversation with Christina Massey, 2025
I Like Your Work – Spring Catalog, curated by Sally Morgan, 2024
New Visionary Magazine – Issue 9: Christina Massey in Conversation with Victoria J. Fry, 2023
I Like Your Work Podcast – Creating, Curating and Collaborating with Christina Massey, 2018
LECTURES / VISITING ARTIST
2025 Visiting Artist/Curator, Residency Unlimited, Brooklyn, NY
2023-24 Visiting Artist / Lecture, SVA In Practice MFA Program and SVA Summer Residency Program
2023-24 Visiting Artist Mentor, UnCool Artists Residency, Brooklyn, NY
2023 Artist Mentor, KUNSTRAUM, Brooklyn, NY
2022 Visiting Artist / Lecture, California State University, Chico, CA
2022 Visiting Artist / Lecture, PAFA, Philadelphia, PA
EDUCATION
2002 BFA, California State University, Chico, CA
1999 Study Abroad, London University, London, England
SELECTED CURATORIAL & ORGANIZATIONAL PROJECTS
The USPS Art Project, 2020, founder of a collaborative mail art initiative created for artists during the pandemic. Over 1000 artists participated, over 4000 artworks were created, and a hybrid traveling/thematic exhibition traveled to 6 states.
Space776, 2023, You Know What You Know, featuring artists Tatiana Arocha, Jaynie Crimmins, Amanda Konishi, Saskia Kraft
Court Tree Collective, 2022, Out of Line, guest curator featuring artists Jade Chan, Alicia Piller, Judi Tavill, Joanne Ungar, Holly Wong
Pelham Art Center, 2020, Domestic Brutes, guest co-curated with Etty Yaniv. Featuring artists: Tirtzah Bassel, Aisha Tandiwe Bell, Ashley Cooper Norwood, Maria De los Angeles, Nancy Elsamanoudi, Fay Ku, Sharon Madanes, Lacey McKinney, Joiri Minaya, Rose Nestler, Diana Schmertz, Alisa Sikelianos-Carter, Manju Shandler, Melissa Stern, Simonette Quamina
BIOBAT ArtSpace, 2019, Summation & Absence, guest co-curated with Etty Yaniv Featuring artists: Suzanne Anker, Nancy Cohen, Lorrie Fredette, Mihcal Gavish and Elaine Whittaker.
ChaShaMa 470 Vanderbilt, 2017, Intertwined, co-curated with Charlotte Mouquin. Featuring artists:Charlotte Becket, Julia von Eichel, Adebunmi Gbadebo, Luiza Kurzyna, Sara Jimenez, Alexandra Limpert, Tomo Mori, Sui Park, Lina Puerta, Kate Rusek, Armita Raafat and Victoria-Idongesit Udondian.
Hunterdon Art Museum, 2017, The Art of Construction, guest curator. Featuring artists Carol Boram-Hays, Crystal Gregory, Gail Heidel, Susan Meyer and Michael Watson.
Press Articles & Interviews
