Tobey Sharp Studio

Born in 2004 Metro Detroit, Michigan

Lives and works in Detroit, Michigan

Education:

2026 BFA (Forthcoming), College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI

Exhibitions:

2023  Student Exhibition, Kresge, College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI

2024 – Student Exhibition, Kresge, College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI

2025 – Student Exhibition, Kresge, College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI

2026 – Fractions, U24 Gallery, Detroit, MI

2026 – Fugue State, Herman Kiefer Hospital, Detroit, MI

2026 – Student Exhibition, Kresge, College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI

Relevant Awards:

Detroit Society of Women Painters and Sculptors 2026 scholarship recipient

As a physical practice my work primarily lies within the realm of sculptural and installation art, as well as oil paintings. This manifests mostly through mixed media, as well as immersive qualities such as audio or tactile experiences. One throughline that I find incredibly important in my personal and artistic philosophies is using found objects in my pieces, things gathered from my life and others’. Enough stuff already exists in this world, and I have a hard time reckoning with that fact alongside making my work. Bridging the gap between recycling and reuse as well as creating something wholly new has become the beating heart of my work. I source almost everything I can from secondhand donation centers as well as smaller businesses if I cannot find what I need in that way. The connection I feel from the piece is also heightened by the effort and time it takes to source my materials, it creates fond memories and an exhilarating feeling of accomplishment before I have even started. 

Conceptually, my work converses primarily around the visceral discomfort I find in having and being housed in a body. This has morphed into the way I view the connection between man and machine, and the specific way we mirror each other bodily – and somehow the way that the soul gets muddied up and mixed into it all. That intersection, the one that the body has as a whole to how we as humans explore and cultivate our lives to be literally shaped beyond what we even want to admit. The body as a driving force behind the visual language already spoken is one I want to translate into my pieces. 

I have also been enraptured by apples. Both as a food, and as a symbol that has been proliferated throughout history. The apple is a visual icon that can connote anything from love and fertility to the shadow self and the thirst for something that cannot be obtained. The colloquial nature of it cannot be denied either; “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”, or “the big apple”. It’s everywhere and I have not as of now uncovered what exactly drives the apple to be so ubiquitous, but the different avenues I explored have been to do with the purity that can be connotated with it. A set intention that is then carried out, something peaceful that is actually a raging consumption, or a discarded piece of one’s self that is calcified into a permanent being. The medium is almost always a direct counter to what the subject is; the apple core is to stone as video is to wind and performance. 

Allowing my medium to be dictated by my concept is another important aspect of my practice. I find that limitation to an arbitrary label is not what stimulates me. If I need to learn a new technique I will as I am sure I will use it again in the future. In a practice that has few straight lines and clean streets one thing I always strive to obtain is the feeling that I have pushed my boundaries with each piece I make. Comfortable art is not something I strive to create, not just in concept but the piece and myself as a whole.