Topher Lineberry

Topher Lineberry is a multidisciplinary artist whose work often uses historical and archival material in conjunction with speculative proposals. Lineberry’s work fuses prequel and sequel into a queer space of becoming. Most recently, this mode of working has taken a sculptural turn, creating a miniature world of architectural models and maquettes which flirt with, refuse, and talk back to art historical categories forcefully grafted onto the American South such as “outsider art,” “folk art,” and handicrafts. These flat free-standing images were traced and altered from drawings by the artist’s grandmother, Helen Lineberry, who drew them in 1929 as a 10 year-old in the Appalachian Mountains. Using family and kin as a platform of investigation, Topher Lineberry advances a project they term “kinstitutional critique” into a site of critical “kinstitution building.”

This spring, the Hunter College MFA Program in Studio Art will graduate 26 artists who completed their degree over the challenging months of the COVID-19 pandemic. These talented MFA Thesis Candidates are exhibiting their work in six group exhibitions at 205 Hudson, in addition to this online spotlight hosted by Hauser & Wirth. At time when the public audience for in-person exhibitions has been limited by the pandemic, we are excited to provide this digital platform to the emerging artists from Hunter College’s MFA Program in Studio Art.