Otherworld by Sam Moyer
By Casey Couch
Sam Moyer, Otherworld, 2025, marble and acrylic on plaster-coated canvas mounted to MDF. Courtesy of the artist and Sean Kelly Gallery.
Hospitals can be overwhelming places, filled with constant motion and emotional weight. Art can offer a momentary pause — a space to breathe, reflect, and feel grounded. At the Cleveland Clinic, Otherworld by Sam Moyer provides that kind of respite.
Measuring more than six feet tall and ten feet wide, the piece commands attention from across the room, yet rewards closer inspection. Moyer, recognized for her inventive approach to materials, inlays marble into canvas, arranging the stone into organic, plant-like forms. The result is a striking balance of contrasts: solid yet airy, precise yet fluid.
Part of Moyer’s “stone paintings,” Otherworld contemplates transitions and cycles found in nature and life. In a healthcare setting, these ideas resonate, offering comfort and connection to something enduring. The marble’s intricate veining suggests motion, while its weight conveys stability and presence.
Influenced by Monet’s exploration of shifting light and tone, Moyer transforms everyday stone into something monumental and poetic. Even its two-panel construction, a practical choice for transport, reflects the artist’s balance of vision and function.
Ellen Rudolph, senior director and curator at the Cleveland Clinic, tells Canvas about the importance and relevance of the engaging piece.
Ellen Rudolph, Senior Director and curator at Cleveland Clinic
Can you tell us the background of the piece:
Rudolph: This artwork is from a group of “stone paintings” by Sam Moyer centering on the dualities of life including decay and growth, loss and perspective, and endings and beginnings. The artist sought to capture a balance between the extremes This work blurs the lines between painting and sculpture. The artist’s technique of inlaying marble into canvas is fascinating. She arranged pieces of marble to create a lyrical botanical composition that is tactile and weighty yet buoyant at the same time.
What response does the piece create for the viewer?
Rudolph: Individual responses to art are of course incredibly subjective, so I speak for myself when I say that it’s exciting to view the striking composition from a distance and then get up close and discover the intricate patterns and texture of the marble and how the artist sets them off with gestural brushstrokes. While there is movement within the veining of the marble and even the lilt of the leaf forms, there is also a quiet stillness that imparts a sense of tranquility for me. I think that comes from the painting’s heft as well—as in, it’s not going anywhere.
How do the materials used add to the overall feeling of the piece?
Rudolph: In the hospital environment, references to the natural world are so important, and the immediacy of the marble connects you to something universal and timeless.
What makes this a notable work from the artist?
Rudolph: It’s not unusual for Moyer to work in large scale, but this work is impressive at six feet tall by just over ten feet wide, and it’s stunning with the contrast of black and white marble pieces set against the mottled gray background. Another unique feature is the artist’s breach of the painting’s border with a piece of marble that juts out beyond the frame.
What else should we know about this piece?
Rudolph: The body of work that Otherworld belongs to was inspired by the Impressionist painter Claude Monet’s play of light and color. It was created in two parts to make it more manageable for the artist [and now Cleveland Clinic!] to move.
