Isabella Shoemaker Ross

Artist statement

Hello my name is Isabella Shoemaker Ross, otherwise Bella and I have been creating art for as long as I can remember. As a child I’ve fond memories of walking over to the met and staring up at the stone sculptures, trying with might to recapture them on the page in front of me, imagining which lost nose fit best. Nowadays I meander through abstraction, allowing the lines I practice drawing breathing figures to guide my hand across the page, hoping it leads me somewhere. Anywhere. Perhaps I myself am not yet sure, content for now to try and lose myself in the process.

Where to find her work

Her mice; town mouse and city rat, a perverse take on the old Aesop’s fable with their articulated tales won the red dot award for her metalsmithing class at the Art Students League and will now be on display August 13th through August 28th 2026 at the Fridman Gallery in New York City. There will be a reception on the 13th at 6pm. Come see them if you may! And if you’re reading this…. Feel free to pick them up and play :)

At Seventeen, Isabella spent a Spring learning clay and oils in Florence, Italy at the Accademia Del Giglio. Two years later she began to experiment digitally and architecturally through classes at Pratt Institute. Whilst working as an interior designer in midtown, she recalled The Art Students League of New York City where a great aunt; Ellen Ross, once studied marble. Before formally returning to the University of Vermont for a bachelors degree in mathematics, she dove into learning marble sculpting along with metalsmithing for a summer.

In Spring 2024, Isabella’s math merged with art and she explored rigid folding origami creating many models and maquettes. Awarded the Brennan Scholarship, she used grasshopper and rhino to derive spirals from the fibonacci sequence. During this period, she developed her own distinct abstract bend which she stumbled upon a year prior and continues to explore today. She is currently back at the League in New York City learning lithography from Micheal Pellitteri and Tomomi Ono as well as metalsmithing from Haksul Lee and Damien Vera. She is continually inspired by her studiomates as well as by friends, nature, interiors; anything playful, provoking strong emotion or a sense of peace.