Statement / Bio
Untitled is a work in which Wessler explores hybrid objects, their narrative potential and taxonomic slippage where the familiar commingles with the unknown, strange and often foreboding. Her prints and drawings occupy the indeterminate realm between reality and dream, nature and artifice. Characterized by alchemy-like processes, the artist manipulates a variety of found materials in intricate processes that rely on time and experimentation: drawings resembling the structure of lace, miniature sculptures including embroidered bird feet, meticulously carved thorns, a tower-like structure encrusted with crystallized salt, or masks sewn from cloth and anointed with mud. Wessler is interested in tapping into uncanny territory
2018 RU alum, Alisha Wessler (b. 1983, Portland, Oregon) is an NYC-based visual artist. Her work is in the permanent Collections of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond and the Centre d’Information Artexte, Montreal in Quebec, Canada. Exhibitions include: Kunsthalle Nummer Sieben, St Petersburg, Russia; Cosmorama, The Museum of Moscow, Tiger Strikes Asteroid Gallery, Philadelphia; Bronx Calling: The Fourth AIM Biennial, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY (2017); Art in Odd Places (AIOP) ; Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY; Highly Recommended, Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids,; From Afar It Is an Island, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, Ann Arbor, MI . Wessler holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an MFA from the Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan.
Artist website: http://www.alishawessler.com/about