Lula
Café Summer Show
June
3 - September 9, 2014
Opening
Reception June 10, 6-9pm
In Things Thrown Upwards Ashley presents a cross section of her work as
sculptor, painter and visual slapstick artist. The show features painted
panels, stuffed forms and fabric wall hangings, all marked with Ashley's
exuberant neon spray painted mark making. Ashley's work is a playful
exploration of the intersection of painting and sculpture, many of her hand
made inflatable sculptures begin as two dimensional silhouettes, sewn together
and then inflated or stuffed cartoonishly into buoyant, quivering, misshapen
forms. Paint sprayed on the objects' surfaces in their various states retains a
record of its peculiar dimensionality in the way it skips over wrinkles and
drips along fault lines. In shape, color and gesture the work toys with the
overlap of, on the one hand, goofy, cartoonish exuberance rendered in
industrial materials, and on the other a sublime, unexpectedly beautiful play
of color and shape that draws you up short and exemplifies the most profound
possibilities of contemporary painting.
Artist Bio:
Claire Ashley grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland. She received a BFA from Gray's
School of Art in Aberdeen and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of
Chicago, where she currently teaches. She has exhibited her work widely in
North America and in the UK. She lives in Oak Park, IL.
