Breath is ubiquitous. Every minute of our lives, from our first cry until our final moment, is punctuated by the subconscious act of breathing. Yet it is this very ubiquity that causes us to take it for granted despite an inescapable fact: it is finite. When my little brother drowned in 2024, the gravity of breath’s impermanence weighed heavily on me. As inherent as it is, I aim to resist this flippancy through the sensual and material exploration of breath, alongside the transformation of grief into joy.
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Rachel Albee is a Minnesota-based artist exploring breath as a conduit between realms of existence. Currently enrolled in Cranbrook Academy of Art's MFA Sculpture Program in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Albee uses unfired clay to create instruments that transform breath into auditory interfaces. Glass, sugar, and plastic are also relevant in her engagement with breath.
In 2025, Albee received a Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation Materials Award and attended a summer residency at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, Maine. She has been featured in multiple group shows, including Overt Space Gallery's 2024 group exhibition "Textures" in Stoughton, Wisconsin.
Copyright © 2026 Rachel Albee - All Rights Reserved.
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