Title

Charcoal on paper

26 x 19 ½ inches

Courtesy the artist and CHART NY

Estimated Retail Value: $4,000

Starting Bid: $2,000

Whitney Oldenburg’s work explores the complex relationship between humans, objects, time, and change in contemporary culture. Incorporating personal belongings and found materials, her monumental, labor-intensive sculptures examine the emotional and psychological weight carried by material possessions, prompting viewers to reconsider how these attachments shape our lives and relationships. In addition to sculpture, Oldenburg’s expressive charcoal drawings also consider accumulation, compression, and entropy, echoing forms that suggest fossils, skeletal structures, and organic growth. Although the title suggests calm, the circling imagery of Safe and Sound alludes to ongoing, even dizzying change. Works like this one reflect on life cycles and the human instinct to preserve and create stability within uncertain conditions and evolving states of nature.