“The work is extraordinary—massive in scale and intricately constructed, channeling the delicacy of lace, with the brutalist power of metal superstructures.” (POV Magazine)

Ursula von Rydingsvard has built her formidable reputation on her towering craggy sculptures of raw cedar and bronze, which can be found at MoMA, Storm King, universities, and other public spaces. This film follows the artist as she creates new commissions for MIT and Princeton, beginning in her massive studio—where she suits up amid the sawdust to draw shapes on wooden beams that will be cut and assembled in puzzle-like stacks—through her work with metals, other materials, and final installation. It also looks back at von Rydingsvard’s struggles as a single mother in NYC, holding down multiple jobs in the face of the art market’s indifference to her work. Her fierce will to succeed and magnificent creations get her through. Told mostly in her own voice, Ursula von Rydingsvard: Into Her Own “is a quiet ode to a woman whose approach to form and material are unmatched in the art world” (Vancouver International Film Festival).