Austen Brantley

My work emerges from the lived experiences, cultural memory, and imaginative lineage of the African diaspora. As a sculptor working in ceramic and bronze, I create figurative forms that honor both ancestral presence and contemporary resilience. Each sculpture becomes a vessel for layered identities—blending myth, memory, and material into embodiments of dignity, struggle, and quiet transcendence.

Across my practice, the human form is not simply rendered; it is inhabited. Figures often rise from or return to one another—figures perched atop a mother’s hair, ancestors emerging from braided textures, bodies woven into gestures of care, guardianship, or ascent. These interwoven forms reflect a spiritual and cultural truth: that African American identity is built through collective memory, generational endurance, and the unseen hands that guide us.

I draw inspiration from African sculptural traditions, diasporic storytelling, and the lived realities of Black communities today. The patinas, surfaces, and postures in my work echo histories that are both tender and unflinching—stories of migration, community, protection, and the daily negotiation of hope. At the same time, the quiet, introspective expressions within my busts and full figures invite viewers into an intimate emotional space, one grounded in reflection rather than spectacle.

Through ceramic earthiness and the permanence of bronze, I explore the tension between fragility and endurance. The miniature figures that scale the bodies of larger forms speak to the ways we carry our histories—how the past climbs, shapes, and watches over us. In monumental works, the scale becomes a declaration of presence, insisting that Black narratives deserve permanence in the public landscape.

Ultimately, my sculptures seek to bridge personal and collective experience. They honor the resilience of Black life, challenge narrow perceptions of cultural identity, and reimagine the human figure as a site where memory, ancestry, and futurity converge. By merging symbolic gestures with contemporary form, I aim to create work that not only preserves history but transforms it—inviting viewers to reconsider the deep interconnectedness of our shared human story.