Artist Statement

I find myself fascinated by the concept of selfhood, of having a body and a self (a body that is a self and a self that is a body) that exist in a world filled with and made up of bodies and selves, and all of the connections and disconnections within and without that complicate and transform this very same concept of selfhood and embodiment. I am trapped in this absurd curiosity. This curious absurdity.

My work is an interdisciplinary network of sculpture, installation, and performance revolving around my experience as a neurodivergent, queer and trans person. The work itself is built up in cellular blocks, like a systematic fragmentation and rebuilding of self or individual, piece by piece, acknowledging the agency of the fragments through a critical mimesis of the systems that would strip their agency through the same process – examining these systems that would manufacture the alienation, isolation, or estrangement of the neuroqueer subject and finding community and reparation in the resulting fragments. This mode of working finds its roots in my research into the intersection of queer/transness and neurodivergence, specifically autism, though extending more broadly into the field of disability and crip theory. 

The interplay of anatomy and abstraction throughout this body of work in the construction, fragmentation, and mediation of bodies theorizes the absurdity of embodiment and selfhood, where selfhood is a constantly changing construction that reflects and relates to the culture, and where the body becomes a site for social relation and resistance.

Bio

Casey Wheeler is an interdisciplinary multimedia artist, working primarily with sculpture, performance, and animation to explore concepts of performativity and embodiment, or what it means to exist in/as a body in capitalist society. They received their Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art (Sculpture) with a Minor in Art History from Framingham State University (FSU) in 2022. Wheeler received an Award for Creative Excellence from FSU in 2022, as well as the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation Material Award from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2025. Wheeler has been included in various shows including the annual Juried show at the Mazmanian Gallery in Framingham, MA in 2022, as well as in A Queer Show (2023), On Seeing Red (2024), and The Queer Show (2025) in Forum Gallery in Bloomfield Hills, MI, “Other Selves” in Pontiac, MI, and Marking Place in Ypsilanti, MI in 2024. They currently have work up in the Graduate Degree Exhibition at Cranbrook Academy of Art where they performed for the opening, as well as “Seeing For Ourselves” at the Annex Gallery in Highland Park, MI. They recently curated a group show titled “Echo” at Forum Gallery in 2025, and Wheeler has also performed in various group and solo showings, with a few more coming up this April. Wheeler is currently an MFA candidate in the Fiber Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art, class of 2025.