Bio

H Boone (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist that utilizes 3D printing and scanning to navigate the membrane between digital and physical. They explore this duality in tandem with a deconstruction of binary gender. The artist intentionally glitches and reconstructs figures to stretch the limitations of the gendered body. Boone is a Schomburg Fellow at University at Buffalo.

Artist Statement

Transhuman: Involving something beyond the merely human; transcending human limitations or boundaries.

Trans human: someone whose gender identity or expression does not correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Repeated and fractured, the work in TRANS/HUMAN by H Boone explores the body as a site of perpetual flux. Some iridescent, some distressed, the finish of these sculptures are alien: reminiscent of insects, corrupted files, and geological formations. Monolith appears to be petrified – toxic. Vials of hormones and liquor are embedded into its body. Occupying the Project Space at BICA, these works upset the natural scale of the body. The painting, Slippage, towers over 3D printed sculptures that range from life sized to miniature. The bodies writhe and contort, caught mid transformation. These biomorphic sculptures begin as 3D scans of trans and gender nonconforming locals from Buffalo. Boone distorts and sculpts on the files digitally, then squirts them out into tangible 3D printed sculptures. This ongoing project reflects the artist's attempts to combine science fiction, queer world building, and creating trans community through art.

TRANS/HUMAN imagines a future where gender is untethered from the body and humans are able to transform at will. This future presents itself as destabilized, fragmented, and ethereal. The digital/physical duality of these works reflects the fluctuating nature of being gender nonconforming. It moves beyond the bare minimum of representation to glorify trans metamorphosis. Currently, identifying openly as trans and having a trans body is radical and needlessly politicized. The artist rejects mere tolerance and hinging trans safety on the apology of being born this way. Shapeshifters have always been here, and will continue to be.



CV

Education

2012-2016

Bachelor of Fine Art in Painting, Maine College of Art, Portland, Maine

2023-

Master of Fine Arts, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York

Exhibitions​

2023

Viewfinder, Portland Public Library, Portland, Maine

TRANS/HUMAN (Solo Show), BICA Project Space, Buffalo, New York

Lovesick, Rivalry Projects, Buffalo, New York

Stay Gold, Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, New York

2022

Open Essex, Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art, Buffalo, New York

Intergalactic Open, Shockboxx, Hermosa Beach, California

Word of Mouth, Women Made Gallery, Chicago, Illinois

Failings, Ejecta Projects, Carlisle, Pennsylvania

Let Them Eat Fake, Bad Art Presents at The Bomb Factory, Archway, London

2021

Gendered Fluid, Solo show at New System Exhibitions, Portland, Maine

"undercurrents", Able Baker Contemporary, Portland, Maine

​2020

Celestial Opera, Human Cathedrals, Paradise Palace, Virtual Exhibition

​2019

Sapphic Laundry Basket, The Apohadion, Portland, Maine

A Salon at Sugar Mountain, The Magenta Suite, Exeter

2018

Our Souls To Keep: Online Exhibition, Field Projects, http://www.fieldprojectsgallery.com/our-souls-to-keep-online

World-Making: A Moon Show, New Fruit, Portland, Maine

2016

Permanent Mural at Free Street, Reny's, Portland, Maine

BFA Thesis Exhibition, Maine College of Art, Portland, Maine​

Publications

2022

Work Featured in: Art Review: Bad Art Presents Let Them Eat Fake, London Art Roundup, May 10, 2022 Link

H. Boone, Gallery Baird, June 1st, 2022 Link

2021

H. Boone, Gallery Baird, June 1st, 2022 Link

Art Review: Two galleries entice viewers with a wealth of experiences, Portland Press Herald, August 8, 2021 link

2018

Sapphic Laundry Basket, Tak-Tak, July 29, 2018 http://www.taktak.nu/sapphic-laundry-basket/

2016

MECA Index: BFA Thesis Exhibition 2016, Maine College of Art, http://index.meca.edu

Work featured in: Look: Your Guide to Gallery Hopping, Old Port Magazine, May 2016 , 28 Work featured in: Student Achievements: The 2016 MECA Thesis Exhibitions, Maine Home and Design, May 2016, 136

2015

Quoted in: The Art of Thinking About Art, Eric Severen, The Portland Phoenix, November 5, 2015

Awards

2023

Schomburg Fellowship at University at Buffalo

2022

BICA Summer Microgrant

2015

Debra Bates Endowed Scholarship for Painters

Merit Show Award, Maine College of Art, Portland, Maine

Nominated to apply to Yale at Norfolk Program, Maine College of Art, Portland, Maine

2014

Alfred “Chip” Chadbourne Endowed Scholarship for Painters

2013

Mildred A and Harold P Nelson Endowed Scholarship

Collections

2023

Heather Gring, New York

2022

Clea Massiani, Washington DC

Kailin Kucewicz, New York

2021

Veronica Perez, Maine

Alexander Roche, Maine

Jesse Weiss, Maine

2018

Daniela Flint, Texas

Umi Clark, Florida

2015

Jacki Weichmann, Maine

Hayley Cummings, Maine ​​​​