Somerset Dwyer

Biography

Somerset Dwyer is a multi-disciplinary artist from San Francisco, CA. Her work explores the ephemera of light and shadow to convey moments of melancholy and highlight the beauty in the mundane. Somerset studied at Cal Poly Humboldt for three years, where she learned to weld and work in foundries. It was in this period that she began to shift her work from two-dimension to three-dimensional forms inspired by the constant growth and decay in the fog and forest. Somerset returned to her home in San Francisco to finish her undergraduate education at San Francisco State University, and continues to study sculpture, while integrating painting and drawing into her work. Surrounded by the existence and proof of her life in San Francisco, Somerset draws inspiration from the memories, people and city that raised her. Somerset’s work has been shown at the Redwood Art Association, The Martin Wong gallery, SFSU’s annual Stillwell exhibition, and her self-portrait was awarded the People’s Choice Award at Canvas + Clay in Eureka, CA.

CONTACT

Education

2021-2024 Cal Poly Humboldt, Arcata, CA, Studied Studio Art

2024-2026 San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA, BA degree in Studio Art

Professional Work

2024-Present Technical and Creative Assistant, Katy Boynton, Oakland, CA

Exhibitions

2021, Indigo Vintage, San Francisco, CA

2022, Student Access Gallery, Cal Poly Humboldt, Arcata, CA

2023, Canvas + Clay, Eureka, CA

2024, Redwood Art Association, Eureka, CA

2024, Annual Stillwell Exhibition, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA

2024, Keeping My Hands Busy, Martin Wong Gallery, SFSU, San Francisco, CA

2025 Annual Stillwell Exhibition, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA

2025, Fledglings, The Good Ship Dodo, San Francisco, CA

Awards

2023 People’s Choice Award, Canvas + Clay

Press

Times Standard, “Making Faces at Canvas + Clay”, May 26th, 2023

Last Updated 24.10.31

Gallery

Paintings

I have always appreciated portraiture for the intimacy I share with my subjects. I would be nothing without the people that surround me. Each and every one has their quirks and their forms of self-expression; it is for these reasons that I have so much love for them. Painting these individuals from life became a labor of love, both for me and for them. I love the conversations that arise, the mutual understanding of what we are doing, the serenity that they feel, that I feel.

While my recent work has not necessarily been rooted in portraiture, I’ve found figurative elements within the less representational work that I have created. Forms bend akin to a body at rest; there is evidence of the figure in a stain or a relief.

Video Installation

My video and projection work has also surrounded the figure, yet involves obscuring what is portrayed by overlaying media on the projection. By using my own body as part of the canvas, my past and my present float between one another, much like memories infiltrate and confuse our lives. They appear and they disappear, they obstruct and they corral the mind.

Sculpture

When I began to work with metal, I became infatuated with the way steel is shaped by the environment that it exists in. I found rust to be a tool, a medium, and a protection for the work that I had created. It demonstrates decay, but it is also beautiful.

In a series titled Keeping My Hands Busy, I created two towers out of steel. One stood about 11 feet tall, and the other four feet. The latter, my first tower, began out of a period of melancholy; I desperately needed something to take my mind off of the goings-on in my life. I developed a process of creating these octagons out of sheet metal. I would plasma cut half inch thick strips of varying lengths, and tack them together in an almost assembly like fashion. It was meditative and simple. I could immerse myself in my work for hours on end and allow the rest to slip away.

Figures

Explorations of human form in charcoal and graphite.