Artist(s): Nik Penny & Scotty Broberg
Venue: WVC MAC Gallery, Wenatchee
Opening Reception: 2026-06-05, 05:00 pm – 07:00 pm
Exhibition Dates: 2026-05-01 – 2026-06-26
Website: https://wvc.edu/learn/programs/art/macgallery.html
In the MAC Grove Recital Hall:
Nick McMahan: Bamboo Tapestry on Maui
First Friday, June 5th, 5:00—7:00 pm
Nik Penny and Scotty Broberg, local artists and team on the ArtsWA Public Art Roster, blend computerized industrial design tools, large datasets, and traditional woodworking processes to create a compelling suite of wood sculptures representing starscapes visible at locations around the globe. The process translates celestial data into a tactile, spatial language, with visual effects that emerge as viewers shift their positions—drawing them from the beauty of the natural wooden surfaces to an experience of the heavens and back again.
Nik Penny and Scotty Broberg: A Quiet Space
We began with a question: how might an object move without moving? We were interested in creating forms that are activated by the viewer—sculptural works that are experienced through movement, where the objects almost return the gaze as the viewer shifts positions. Though we have used computerized tools and datasets in their creation, we wanted the works to exist outside and in opposition to it the digital, where the objects are materially grounded, even primordial.
Through 3D modeling and printing, we developed forms that refer to skyscapes: fields to be navigated rather than simply observed. With wood as the medium, the works were realized through a CNC process that translates celestial data into a tactile, spatial language. Stars are rendered as perforations, with each aperture scaled to brightness and the surrounding wells representing their masses. After the works are cut, they are finished using a process inspired by the traditional Japanese wood preservation technique of yakisugi—a centuries old process of burning, brushing, and oiling wood.
We chose materials and subject matter that are both ancient and still a source of mystery, creating works that are at once global and unifying. The sculptures are derived algorithmically from 9 specific places, rendering compositions of starscapes from skies across the globe. We hope the objects move viewers from the beauty of the natural wooden surfaces to an experience of the heavens and back again.
Team Statement
Scotty Broberg and Nik Penny utilize digital and traditional fabrication techniques, and work with both engineered and natural materials, as they give form to concepts which hold respect for the intended environment. They think deeply about their projects, developing meaningful narratives that stimulate emotions while being mindful of the importance of the relationships between a space and an installation. By encoding consequential data into material, they develop sculptural systems that embody and communicate meaning.
Their combined knowledge and skillsets give them experiences with a wide variety of materials and processes, and their collaborative and complementary approach to problem solving integrates technical rigor with conceptual depth.
Broberg develops unique systems using tools he often designs himself, including a pressurized steam oven and a 3D matrix system. He builds bent wood sculptural forms that emit light, which are simultaneously precise and expressive. Penny draws on his experience in painting, programing digital looms and knitting machines, and creating computer algorithms that generate structures based on real-world data sets. Together, they seek to bridge the digital and tactile, working with materials that shift perception and activate space.
Through sculpture, they aim to make hidden systems visible—and their implied meanings are translated into physical installations. Their work positions data not only as information, but as material and metaphor.
