Padyn Humble

bio

Padyn Humble is a sculptor from Montana whose practice reinterprets the intention of our cultural symbols to construct meaning through a queer perspective. Inspiration stems from various influences like old country music, cartoons, pop culture, kitsch, and surrealist aesthetics. He has been an active artist since 2014 and is currently working in Berlin, Germany. He earned his MFA in May 2022 and was awarded International Sculpture Center’s “Outstanding Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture” and is featured in Sculpture Magazine. Summer of 2023 he was  a resident at Wassaic Project in New York State.

artist Statement

I was raised in Montana, where my queerness was shaped in response to cowboy romanticism and expectations of rugged masculinity. Drawing on stage props, trompe l'oeil, and cartoon rendering, my work attempts to unmask the camp inside the myth, seeking the sensual, sexual, and absurd through a sincere surrealism. My practice is a device to recognize the nuance that exists at the margins, dissecting the social structures that validate rigid behavior while weeding out patterns that no longer fit. I often interrogate interiority, queer ingenuity, intimacy, and historical currency through the symbolic collage of my practice.