Junk Mail and Found Papers Undulate in Agate-Like Wall Sculptures by Jessica Drenk
Detail of “Slice 3” (2025), junk mail and plaster, 54 x 79 inches. All images courtesy of the artist and Galleri Urbane, shared with permission
Junk Mail and Found Papers Undulate in Agate-Like Wall Sculptures by Jessica Drenk
August 20, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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If you’ve ever studied the rainbow-like mineral rings of petrified wood or observed light filter through the striations of a slice of agate, you’ll understand Jessica Drenk’s fascination with geology. The New York-based artist upcycles objects like junk mail and pencils to create elaborately layered, sculptural pieces evoking banded crystals and colorful sedimentary stone.
Drenk’s forthcoming solo exhibition, Elemental Form at Galleri Urbane, continues to plumb the relationship between ephemerality and eternity. The gallery says, “Building in layers, Drenk renders erosion, sedimentation, and crystallization human-made.”
“Agate 3” (2025, junk mail and used paper, 57 x 79 inches
Many of Drenk’s wall pieces are made solely of paper, while some new pieces, like the Slice series, incorporate plaster. Redolent of the way marble is sliced from quarries in neat slabs, “Aggregate Triptych” or “Flow” look as though they have been hewn directly from some much more expansive deposit. Panning out, we might see streams and oxbows amid a vast natural landscape.
Drenk emphasizes flow in the sense that earth, water, and our perception of time can be fluid, as can be the nature of art-making itself. Creatives often strive for moments in which they experience being in “a state of flow.” From the perspective of both making the work and the way it is viewed, the artist describes this guiding ethos as “an aqueous sensibility.”
Elemental Form runs from September 6 through November 8 in Dallas. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
“Aggregate Triptych 4” (2025), junk mail and used paper, 42 x 88 inches
“Agate 2” (2025), junk mail and used paper, 66 x 44 inches
Detail of “Agate 2”
“Slice 2” (2025), junk mail and plaster, 66 x 64 inches
“Aggregate Strata 3” (2025), junk mail and used paper, 75.5 x 81.5 inches
“Agate 1” (2025), junk mail and used paper, 50 x 78 inches
Detail of “Slice 2”
“Slice 3” (2025), junk mail and plaster, 54 x 79 inches
“Flow 1” (2025), junk mail and used paper, 74 x 56 inches
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