PIECES OF WORK
By Artists Carol Schepps & Trudy Borenstein-Sugiura
On View: November 14 – December 12, 2026
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 14, 3-5pm
Exhibition Statement coming soon…
About the Artists:
Trudy Borenstein-Sugiura
Bio
Trudy Borenstein-Sugiura is an award winning designer of fine jewelry and tabletop objects whose work is included in the Permanent Collection of the Smithsonian Institution at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum.
Trudy has returned to the creation of fine art through paper collage. Using documents and personal papers for storytelling, she constructs with a goldsmith’s meticulous obsession for detail. Since 2016, her collages have been exhibited in galleries and museums internationally. She was awarded a Mid-Atlantic States and NJ Council for the Arts Individual Artist Award and a selected Artist in Residency at Foundation House in Greenwich, CT.
Artist Statement
I explore the intricate layers of time, memory, cultural identity, ecology, and politics through collage, using documents, texts, maps and an array of personal papers. The materials function as both image and archive, carrying their own histories into new configurations. While forming the image, these materials invite viewers to look beneath the surface, where words, dates, and events recede into shadow and reassemble into fuller and deeper narratives.
My practice is rooted in time and memory. It began as a way to honor my late father, a mathematician, by forming his portrait from his personal papers—assembling a life through its traces. Even as underlying narratives were revealed, his image was truly formed from the sum of all of his parts and his life story was literally written all over his face. Creating many iterations, I further examined how inherited and found materials could reveal personal and collective histories which shape identity.
I select materials for their thematic and emotional resonance, then cut, arrange, and layer them in a meditative act of construction. My skillset as a goldsmith informs my technique. Entirely analog, my work relies on precision cutting and pasting, using hand drawn ‘maps’ to lay out the meticulous placement of various papers to tell the story.
My subjects range from contemporary and ancestral portraits, local, extinct, and living birds (often situated within conflict zones), historical chronicles and classic literature—or simply whatever feels most in need of close introspection.
As connections emerge through both intention and chance, each collage becomes its own historical document. In an era where paper is disappearing, these works act as time travelers—exploring the past and repurposing them for future reflection.
Artist Website
Artist Instagram
Carol Schepps
Artist Statement
Released from her work as a fiber artist, Carol Schepps has picked up the brush and pen of her original art training. Using ink, acrylics and altered printed materials, she composes organic shapes with an eye toward cohesion.
