issue 6
// art
Title: Frayl // Artist: Bri Wenke
about the piece
| My work begins where language falls short, at the intersection of emotion, collective narrative, and somatic storage. Each deconstructed face and figure a map of what the body carries: grief, fortitude, release. Using palette knives and visceral, tactile layers, I sculpt into the paint as if amplifying truth from the physical. In this unraveling and reassembly, I’m searching for what is universal and what is singular, how the body itself can become a site of both disruption and belonging, both betrayal and home. Ultrarunning closely mirrors this painting process; both demand surrender, both reveal what endures, what remains. Through gesture and texture, I aim to make visible the unseen, to translate the raw, resilient pulse of what it is to be human. |
about the artist // Bri Wenke
| Raised on the New England coastline and currently based in Charleston, SC, Bri Wenke is a self-taught figurative artist with a background in history and anthropology. Her work investigates the human form as a vessel for emotion, memory, and collective narrative. Through the use of charcoal, palette knives, and heavy-body mediums, Wenke approaches painting as a visceral and sculptural act—one that reveals the tension between physicality and feeling. Her practice is deeply informed by movement and endurance; as an ultrarunner, she explores the parallels between the body in motion and the process of artistic excavation, continually uncovering what lies beneath the surface. Wenke’s work has been exhibited both locally and internationally, including Miami Red Dot, Saatchi Art, and the Other Art Fair London. She has independently curated and exhibited two fully immersive exhibitions, and her work can be found in private collections worldwide. |
Instagram: @artbybri
Website
wildscape. literary journal 