My Quest to Find Cameron Junker’s Art
So I was scrolling through my feed yesterday when this name popped up – Cameron Junker. Never heard of him before, but folks kept mentioning his wild sculptures. Got curious, y’know? Figured I’d dig into what this dude actually creates.
First thing I did was straight-up Google his name. Typed “Cameron Junker projects” like a total noob. Results were messy – buncha random articles, some Pinterest pins showing metal blobs, zero official site. Annoying as heck. Then I tried adding “sculpture” to the search, which finally gave me clearer pics of his rusty-looking industrial pieces.
Went down the rabbit hole reading interviews where he explains his junk obsession. Dude literally welds scrap metal into these creepy-crawly insect shapes. Found out he’s based in New Orleans, which explains the whole salvage vibe. His studio must look like a mad scientist’s garage.
Now the real headache started – where to actually SEE his stuff? Search after search came up dry for locations. Remembered he teaches at some art school, so I combed through university exhibit archives. Bingo! Found records of his work at the New Orleans Art Center back in 2019. No current shows listed though.
Pivoted to Instagram hunting. Searched tags like #cameronjunker and #foundobjectart. Scrolled for ages till I spotted a post from some tiny gallery in St. Louis showing one of his spider-like pieces. Messaged them asking if it was still on display. They replied saying “nah, that was last season” with zero info about where it went next. Ugh.
Finally struck gold when I stumbled upon a podcast transcript where Junker mumbled about “pieces collecting dust in storage.” Realized most of his work isn’t permanently displayed anywhere! Major letdown. Best bets to catch his creations:
- Random university art shows (hit or miss)
- Industrial-themed group exhibitions
- Private collections (good luck getting invites)
Whole search took me like three hours. Learned two things: First, tracking down niche artists requires detective-level patience. Second, Junker’s work looks way cooler in photos than in real life – probably ’cause you can’t smell the rust through your screen.
