University of Oregon 2025-26 Visiting Artist Lecture Series
Presented by the Department of Art and Center for Art Research

Cerny’s sculptures and work on paper start with the idea that “furniture” and “mother” are figures that secure a value (to others) for their potential to hold, display, or be absent-mindedly left with things. Putting form and color to work and entrusting no small part to contingency, these works behave as something like gestural understudies for a play about the day-to-day grinding weariness and joyful slapstick absurdity of human relationships—about trying to Work It Out…or not. The shelf, the rack, the hook, the slot, the vessel: all stand at the ready to be occupied temporarily, until something better comes along. These objects “hold,” literally and metaphorically. A pattern played out over and over in the work is one of holding as the creation of intimacy and belonging, for pleasure, and for self-preservation.