Jeff Muhs Talks About ‘The Uncanny Valley’

On Saturday, December 11, at 3 p.m., Guild Hall in East Hampton will host a conversation between Jeff Muhs, winner of the 2018 Artist Members Exhibition, and Christina Mossaides Strassfield, Guild Hall Museum director and chief curator.

Jeff Muhs’s exhibition “The Uncanny Valley” opened at Guild Hall on October 30 and it originates from a sculptural process the artist calls “Dynamic Free Casting.” By discovering this method, the artist has developed new means for forming concrete, all while embracing its inherent fluidity and weight. By pushing the physical limits of the materials as well as his own ability to manipulate, he has discovered a personal source of infinite creativity.

“‘The Uncanny Valley’ is a hypothesized relationship between the degree of an object’s resemblance to a human being and the emotional response to such an object,” Muhs said. “For me, ‘The Uncanny Valley’ was the moment when I first saw the results of my concrete sculpture as flesh. What had previously been an exploration of more architectural forms, by manor of my process, presented itself as flesh-like.”

Muhs has been participating in the Guild Hall Artist Members Exhibitions for about 25 years and noted that he sees it as a great focal point for the creative community.

“An opportunity for camaraderie and to share our artistic expressions with one another,” he said. “It is a great honor to have been chosen as the top honors recipient for my sculpture and to be awarded the opportunity to exhibit at this cultural institution, so rich in the history of our local artistic community and 20th century art.”

As a local multidisciplinary artist, Muhs has worked in a variety of mediums and genres and this exhibition will feature both his sculptural works as well as his paintings. During the 2018, annual Artist Members Exhibition, he received the top honors award for his concrete sculpture “Callipyge,” selected by Connie Choi, associate curator at The Studio Museum of Harlem. The prize is this solo exhibition in the Spiga Gallery.

To register for Jeff Muhs’s conversation with Christina Mossaides Strassfield, visit guildhall.org. “The Uncanny Valley” remains on view through January 2. Guild Hall is at 158 Main Street, East Hampton.