Ian Trask

Ian Trask (b. 1983, Paxton, MA) ) is a sculptor and multimedia artist who transforms everyday waste materials into objects and installations with new purpose and integrity. His immersive works often play with sophisticated patterns, lending unlikely materials exquisite beauty. At other times, he works on an intimate scale with puckish humor. Trask began his career in New York City, where he was a core member of the Invisible Dog Art Center and exhibited at the Spring Break Art Fair, the Figment Festival, and Brooklyn Academy of Music. Upon returning to Maine, where he studied biology at Bowdoin College, Trask has exhibited at the University of New England, University of Maine, the Maine Historical Society, and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. In 2018, he published his first artist book, Strange Histories: A Bizarre Collaboration, and has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, Hyperallergic, Portland Press Herald, Brooklyn Magazine, and Maine Magazine. Trask has been an artist-in-residence at Pioneer Works (Brooklyn, NY), Mass MOCA (North Adams, MA), Marble House Project (Dorset, VT), Wassaic Project (Wassaic, NY), and most recently at the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation (Rockland, ME). He is currently serving on the board of directors for Lights Out Gallery, a non-profit arts organization based in Norway, ME.

Ian’s work was featured in ‘Layers & Moments‘ on view January 11-26, 2025.

“The works in Ian Trask’s Strange Histories series combine found 35mm photography, analog collage, and assemblage sculpture to create imaginative double-exposures that transcend the boundaries of time and experience. The photocollages, which are presented in vintage slide viewers, are created by overlaying two 35mm slides which have been meticulously selected from the artist’s massive 30,000 slide collection. It’s a slow process that relies on trial and error and serendipity. From the chaos emerges surreal visual juxtapositions informed by a confluence of memory, beliefs, feelings, current events, hopes, fears, and humor. The idea first took root in 2012 when the artist received a massive donation of slides from the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, an art-pop family band based in New York City who used found slideshows as a catalyst for their music. The project has since evolved to include hundreds of the original collages, numerous print editions, and a collaborative art book (Strange Histories: A Bizarre Collaboration).”