STATEMENT
Her investigations seek to understand how social ills such as school shootings, incel culture and gender-based violence are related to policy and scientism that is embedded with supremacist, religious and patriarchal biases. The writings of Julia Kristeva, Donna Haraway, Maggie Nelson and clowning practice of Adriana Medina help to inform her rebellious twists that employ intimacy and engage discovery and joy found throughout her art practice.
Her work in conversation with AI glimpses into the collective mind of western cultural biases which she focuses on futurity and desire. In this exploration, she created a set of botanical/human hybrid action figures that playfully reimagine how masculinity can exist without pain and violence and harmoniously alongside other gender expressions in a posthuman world. In her monumental sculpture, Paradise, iridescent synthetic hair and salt are combined in a quasi-abstract pose of the black sickle bill’s mating dance. She values this bird as an emblem of natures capacity to prioritize beauty above struggle, shattering the view that strong-arm hierarchies are the way of the world.
BIO
Ashleigh Abbott is an interdisciplinary artist who makes work around the topics of masculinity, social forms, motherhood, nature, play and desire. Her practice is research based, investigating critical discourses around gender and the intertwined histories of misogyny and supremacies in policy, science and religion. Her work often emerges in speculative, abstract, and humorous ways that range from performance to sculpture, painting, or sound.
She has been awarded Covington Rhodes Prize and The Bio Design Challenge Award as well as multiple other awards from national and international organizations. She was the 2022 Curator Fellow at Parsons, The New School. Her work has been shown in New York in exhibitions at Gallery MC, the Aronson Gallery, Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons 25 East 13th Gallery, Grace Exhibition Space, along with other exhibitions through the United States, Spain and Morocco.
CURRICULUM VITAE
EDUCATION
2023 Parsons, New School, New York, NY- MFA (Fine Arts) - in progress
2022 25 E 13th Gallery Curatorial Fellow, Parsons, The New School
2021 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico — BFA
2011 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico — BUS
2009 Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain
2008 Gaia Education, Certificate in Sustainable Urban Design, Albuquerque, NM
2007 Summer Course in Oaxaca, Mexico— Curandersimo Certificate
2007 Spanish Medical Language Course, Oaxaca, Mexico
2001 Santa Fe Community College, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2000 Seattle Central Community College, Seattle, Washington
1999 Internship in Documentary Filming Making, Subhari Network, Mumbai, India
1998 Internship with Scott Baxter, Commercial Photography, Scottsdale, AZ
1997 Screenwriting Course, College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico
EXHIBITION RECORD
2023 Thesis Show Aaronson/Keller Gallery Manhattan, NYC, NY
There is Only After, MC Gallery, Manhattan, NYC, NY
2022 ALGO(RYTHM), Tanthem Collective, Manhattan, NYC, NY
First Steps into Fire (Performance), This Flesh is All I have to Offer Group Show, Grace Exhibition Space, Manhattan, NY
Open Studios, Parsons 25 E 13th Building, Manhattan, NYC, NY
Everything Her You Saw Last Night, Group Show, 25 E 13th Gallery at Parsons, New School, Manhattan (NYC), NY
2021 Sex, Money, Trash - Group Show, 25 E 13th Gallery, Manhattan (NYC), NY
2020 Covington Rhode Senior Prize Winner Exhibition
Bio Design Challenge International, Virtual Exhibit, NYC Based
2019 Intersections of Digital and Physical Media Group Show, UNM ArtsLAB, Albuquerque, NM
2018- Urban Abstractions, Solo Show, Ojo Optique, Albuquerque, NM
2012 International Symposium of Electronic Arts (ISEA), Albuquerque Museum with Meow Wolf, Albuquerque, NM
2011 City Invitational Photo Show, Meknes, Morocco
2010 Group Show, Granada, Spain
2000 De-generated Poetry, Group Show, Seattle Central Community College, Seattle, WA
1998 Solo exhibit, Portraits on Metal, Aztec Cafe, Santa Fe, NM
CURATING
2023 There is Only After, Gallery MC, Manhattan, NYC
2022 Parsons 25 E 13th Gallery Curator Fellowship, The New School, NYC
Everything Her You Saw Last Night, Group Show, 25 E 13th Gallery, (NYC), NY
Trash, Sex, Money, 25 E 13th Gallery, (NYC), NY
2013 Love, Hydra Gallery. Albuquerque, NM
2012 Home, Hydra Gallery. Albuquerque, NM
AWARDS
2020 Covington Rhode Senior Prize Winner
Winner of New Mexico Chapter of Bio Design Challenge (BDC)
2016 9th International Color Awards Nominee, Tracks, International (Online)
1998 2nd Place Winner, Emerging Photographers of New Mexico, Santa Fe Community College Main Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
PRESS
2020 KUNM University Showcase with Megan Kamerick, Brillo The Snail, Radio Interview
KRQE Local News, Brillo The Snail, Televised Interview
UNM Newsroom, Brillo The Snail, Print Interview
Daily Lobo (UNM University Paper), Brillo The Snail, Print Interview
PUBLICATION AS AUTHOR
2012 “Cuentame Ya- Experiences in Morocco During Arab Spring 2010-2011; the Protesting Frontlines, Child Immigration, and an Exiled Candidate from the Democratic Republic of the Congo” Published online 2012, removed from online for revisions.
*Please email zoopsia@gmail.com for expanded CV.