Ian Gerson (he/they) is an interdisciplinary artist and educator born and based in Houston, Texas. Working at the intersections of sculpture, installation and community engagement, their work investigates climate injustices, trans consciousness and queer longing. Ian salvages shipping ropes from urban waterways, hand-weaving them with mylar emergency blankets, construction netting, personal clothing scraps and other detritus into flimsy tapestries and makeshift wearables, intended as safety gear for trans people. Ian's work asks how a trans experience, embodying adaptability and resilience, can be looked to as a model for surviving increasing precarity.
After receiving a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Austin, Ian lived and worked in New York City for eight years where they created a series of site-specific installation and performance projects including a temporary travel agency in an empty Italian ice store, a mock park ranger booth offering comedic historic walking tours of Socrates Sculpture Park, and a recreation of a storm-ravaged deli storefront following Superstorm Sandy's destruction of their Rockaway Beach neighborhood. Ian received an MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University and has taught art to all ages, ranging from workshops in public elementary schools to Sculpture classes at the college level.
Ian has shared sculptures and immersive installations at art spaces in the United States and Mexico, including Friends Gallery, Art League Houston, BOX 13 ArtSpace, Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans, The Bronx Museum and AIR Gallery. Past residencies include ACRE, Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, MacDowell, A Studio in the Woods, Galveston Artist Residency and Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, among several others. Their work has been supported by the 2022 Houston Artadia Award, Houston Arts Alliance, New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, Foundation for Contemporary Art and a Public Art Grant from the City of Galveston.
Ian moved back to the Gulf Coast in 2020 where he maintains an active studio practice, works on the install teams at a handful of local arts institutions, and is involved with several community projects, including co-creating and co-facilitating Tool School, an accessible skill-building workshop series for queer and trans folks.