Crystal Stokowski is a mother, creative consultant, environmental advocate, and autodidactic multidisciplinary artist who primarily works with second hand, upcycled, & found materials. She expresses in a variety of media including print making, quilting, woodwork, pyrography, clay, painting, herbalism,video, social engagement,sign making, pocket sized zines, writing astrology, & large scale mixed media installations. Motherhood, social and environmental injustices, and the experiences felt within those realms, inform her work.
Stokowski spent over a decade working and touring with the band Modest Mouse. She has also spent a number of years playing and touring with her own musical projects including M-ax Noi Mach, Lil' Crissy, Summer Jam Band, and Black Black. Crystal has also co-founded TPAIRR, an Artist in Residence program at her home located in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Which gives artists & the like, a place for connection, reflection, & inspiration. Stokowski has been an independent creative consultant for over 20 years providing creative support with a focus on environmental sustainability to arts organizations and small businesses. She currently offers consulting services throughout the Mid-Atlantic. Most recently, Stokowski started a free monthly Surf Film Night in her community highlighting local filmmakers and films that convey proactive solutions to climate change and social injustices in mainstream surf culture. Crystal is an alumni of Space 1026 and currently the Vice Chair of the Delaware Surfrider Foundation.
Crystal has exhibited her art extensively from 96 Gillespie in London to Galleria Candela in San Juan, Puerto Rico to multiple galleries and institutions in New York City, Honolulu, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, and Chicago. She has given talks & workshops at MOMA NYC, ICA Philadelphia, Clocktower Gallery NYC, and Siren Arts Asbury Park. Stokowski was selected for three Artist Residencies funded by The Andy Warhol Foundation & The NEA in 2013, 2014, and 2017. In 2024, she was awarded a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts for her documentary film making. Stokowski was also awarded for graphic design by the Delaware Health Equity Report through Delaware State University. She is also part of an outdoor permanent installation in Camden, New Jersey & a permanent group exhibition in the Philadelphia International Airport. Crystal has taught classes in pyrography and upcyled quilting at Fleisher Art Memorial, Folklore Philadelphia, Maas Building, and the Rehoboth Art League. Stokowski has had a variety of work published in several Artistic Publications such as Sea Together Magazine, Coastal Style Delmarva, Ready Made, Foam Symmetry, Awkhold, and a number of installation books through Space 1026.
exhibitions, etc // social media
crystal.stokowski@gmail.com
For many years, I've documented the erosion at the Northside of Indian River Inlet (NIRI) in Delaware Seashore State Park using a multitude of analog film and digital mediums. This complex and dynamic area has a profound history with a moveable inlet, a devastating shipwreck from centuries ago, a defunct sand bypass system, whale beachings, overwashes, and five and a half bridges being built in the same stretch in less than a hundred years. This unique surf break is the heart of so many generations of families and the first wave my son and I ever caught together. With climate change, state negligence, and continual anthropogenic pressures, the erosion at NIRI has been uncovering layers of dumped bridges, roadways, and other hazardous materials onto the beach, in the nearshore, and in the surf zone. In 2023 and 2024, I coordinated with state agencies and volunteers in the removal of over 420 tons of debris from NIRI. These photographs represent conflicting feelings of perplexity and normalization that's taken place from having this type of dangerous marine debris in our community for the last five years.
