BROCKTON — Cicely Carew makes her abstract installations largely out of construction materials. In “BeLOVEd,” her new installation at Fuller Craft Museum through Sept. 20, frothy sculptures reach upward from the floor and drift overhead; sunlight bounces through crystals onto the walls; radiant prints hang on a soft pink wall, and more.
She sees “BeLOVEd” as “a sacred container.” The Globe spoke with her as she installed the piece.
“I want you to feel that this is a gift for you,” Carew said. “Just like when I walk into the woods, I’m like, ‘Ah, it’s here for me.’ And once you leave, you are transformed in some way.”
The artist, a 2023 James and Audrey Foster Prize winner at the Institute of Contemporary Art, is also known for her buoyant 2021 “Ambrosia” installation at the Prudential Center for Now + There (now the Boston Public Art Triennial).
When “Ambrosia” came down, she took the materials back to her studio.
“I twisted it up and made something new and popped it on the wall, and then looked at it and was like, ‘Oh, OK. That’s a whole new thing that has a life,’” she said “It’s a death and rebirth cycle. That’s what I love about this material. It’s also recycled, and I’m trying to be thoughtful about the planet, because artists are the secret polluters.”
Where to find her: www.instagram.com/cicelycarew/
Age: 42
Originally from: Los Angeles
Lives in: Cambridge
Making a living: Carew makes art full time.
Studio: “It’s a mess,” the artist said of her 500 square feet of shared studio space at Waltham Mills. But it’s also, in a way, home. “I go in and live there and put my headphones on,” she said. “It’s my sanctuary.”
What she makes: Carew, a painter, printmaker, and public artist, does not consider herself a sculptor. She called her multimedia installations “flying paintings.”
How she started: In high school, Carew weighed her options. Should she go to art school or accept an athletic scholarship? Her mother, sick with cancer at the time, took her to a portfolio review.
“I came out that day with invitations to apply to Cooper Union, to Cal Arts,” Carew said. “She declared when we got into the parking lot. ‘Cicely, you’re an artist.’”
“That was the last time we had an outing together,” Carew said. “I came out here two months after she passed to go to MassArt.”
“I feel it’s a responsibility, I have this big blessing to do what I love,” she said.
How she works: “I just start gathering, manipulating. I think of words that are coming, like ‘conjuring,’” the artist said, “how do I materialize that?”
Then she improvises. “It’s like jazz, on the spot, for installations like this. I have everything that I need. Then I’ll just start playing in space.”
Advice for artists: “We are the seers of the unseen. The vessels for what’s unknown. There’s no straight path. And you learn this the hard way,” Carew said. “It’s not supposed to be easy, because that’s not the point. So long as you’re leading with love and inviting in your helpers to help you, [your path] will show up.”
Cate McQuaid can be reached at catemcquaid@gmail.com. Follow her on Instagram @cate.mcquaid.