Current work/Spoiled Rotten-
MFA Thesis Show;

I think womanhood will always be tethered to consumption. 
I have become numb to the feeling of being devoured throughout my life and now it seems natural to create works that are immediately read as pleasant and palatable because thats what I’ve always been asked to do with myself. Every piece I created for this show has the voice of an angry teenager responding to trauma, fear, or frustration which can be easily be overlooked thanks to their bright colors and lighthearted toy-like forms. 
The sweeter these works seem (even if only on the surface), the more likely they are to be picked off of a shelf and be in someone else’s hands where they are no longer my burden to carry. 
I could ask the viewer to spend time unpacking these seemingly friendly, familiar or comical items only to realize the works being seen have something backhanded to say or are actively decomposing, but thats a choice each individual gets to make on their own. 

The ephemerality of my work is extremely important and I choose materials that will either be permanent, or rot quickly. The combination of easily weathered steel, and plastic play a fun game as the metal will decompose around or inside of the plastic, which will probably outlast us all. The laser etching and color will disappear from each surface, or the rust will completely take over a surface completely erasing the content. Without my voice on them they’re free to evolve into something completely unknown and independent. 
My works have a desire to linger, both physically and emotionally, as collectables manufactured by memory from experiences I often can’t seem to make sense of.

Casey Newberg is an artist and metalsmith in Philadelphia, PA. Newberg received her MFA from the Metals/Jewelry, CAD/CAM program at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia in 2022, and her undergraduate degree from Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2018. Her early career focused on the intimate relationships she began to deconstruct with not only herself but with maternity and femininity as a whole. The work she created at this time were electroformed vessels that mirrored the similar and often provocative shapes that bodies create when they’re asked to grow in different ways. 

Shortly after leaving KCAD, her family was diagnosed with a rare neurodegenerative disease that is both genetic and incurable. Upon receiving this news her electroformed work stopped for a period and she began to focus on the ephemerality and somewhat rotten nature of life. As she continued in graduate school Newberg began developing work that focused on impermanence and followed lines of medical dependence and consumption. Her work now focuses on feelings of adulthood displacement, and clouded trauma by placing familiar or recognizable objects in malignant contexts. Many of the pieces she’s created throughout the past two years incorporate foul language or rotten materials that by nature will self destruct.