About the artist
Gracie English makes drawings in wire from a studio in Louisville, Kentucky.
Studio, Louisville · 2024
Gracie English is the sculptor behind Wired by Gracie, based in Louisville, Kentucky. Her practice is built almost entirely from two materials — galvanized steel wire and copper — bent, wrapped, and woven by hand.
The work treats wire as a drawn line: a way to describe volume without filling it. Figures, animals, and architectural fragments emerge as open contours that hold light and shadow rather than mass.
Each sculpture begins with a single length of wire and a rough idea of posture. The form grows through repetition: loop, twist, anchor, repeat. Over days or weeks, a lattice appears, stiff enough to stand but open enough to breathe.
Her sculptures have been shown in galleries and exhibitions across Kentucky and the wider South. Work is available for acquisition, commission, and exhibition.
History
A timeline in wire.
- 2017
First wire figures
Began forming small animal studies in galvanized steel wire, teaching the material to hold gesture and weight without mass.
- 2018
Pilot
Completed the first large-scale wire dog portrait, a turning point in scale and presence.
- 2020
Dayton
A companion portrait in layered steel wire, built during a year of slower studio work.
- 2024
Copper and larger forms
Introduced copper into the practice for its warmth and responsiveness, leading to larger animal and figure studies.
- 2026
Into the Storm
A copper bison completed as the most ambitious work to date — a study in charge, weight, and hand-woven texture.
Practice
Material and method.
Steel gives structure; copper gives warmth. By switching between the two, or using them together, the sculptures shift from industrial to intimate, from armature to skin.
There is no mold or internal frame. The wire is both skeleton and surface. The finished pieces are lightweight but visually dense, drawing the eye along every path the hand has taken.
The subjects are usually animals — dogs, deer, bison — chosen for their posture and presence. A good sculpture, Gracie believes, should feel like it is about to move.
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