statement

My work explores labyrinth-like structures between the real and fantasy through the lens of the ambiguous space between seduction and disgust. I don't attempt to pretend my work is the real- I carefully construct facades and masks to confuse the viewer. The faux, the fake, and embellishment are all key players in this space. Things hide, they peek out, they transform and morph. The neo-baroque too, with it's focus on open visual frameworks such as the labyrinth is a strong presence in my work.

The pull between the polarities fascinates me because of how close one can come to the other and still exist as itself. When it comes down to it, there is little difference between the two, yet also a world of it. They affirm one another, they negate one another. As a result, true horror can exist in this tense, and sublime space.

I use food as a primary medium to connect to the viewers' corporeality in my drawings. It's ability to be at once both sensual and revolting is a direct result of its connection to the mouth, the stomach, and the mind. This physicality makes it an ideal conduit to discuss the overlaps, confusions and gaps between seduction and disgust; the real and the fantastical.

The drawings I make include numerous materials: organic dyes, food residues, digitally altered photographs of rotting, yet altered foods, ink, oils, photographic transfers, and pencil. I use this broad expanse of materials to further emphasize the ambiguous threads between the perceived real and the fantastical; the object, the experience, and the image- as well as the seductive and repulsive. Each material to create an image is another mediation from the thing in itself. Time and space collapse into a single plane, as the constructed and simulated play the part of the original.

bio

born: 1986, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

education

University at Buffalo: State University of New York, MFA, 2013
Gordon College, BA, 2008

selected awards/honors

TopSpin Series Artist, Castellani Art Museum, Niagara University, 2013
Teaching Assistantship, University at Buffalo: The State University of New York, 2011-2013

selected publications

"The Seneca Review" (V. 43/1). Geneva, NY: Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 2013  
Maier, Angelica, "The Viewer Experience". Buffalo, NY: University at Buffalo Department of Visual Studies, York, 2013
"The St. Sebastian Review" (V. 3/1). Cambridge, MA, 2013.
"Art Takes Miami at SCOPE"; exhibition catalogue. Brooklyn, NY: Artists Wanted, 2011.

selected solo or two-person exhibits

The Castellani Art Museum, Niagara University: Generatione Nostra est Scriptor Minas (Our Generation's Menace), Niagara, NY, 2013
Silo City: Velvet<>Putrescence, Buffalo, NY, 2013
464 Gallery: Remnants of a Life Undercover, Buffalo, NY, 2010

selected group shows

Barrington Center for the Arts: Faculty/Alumni Recent Work, Wenham, MA, 2013
515 Main(St) Gallery: 2011 Parallax, Buffalo, NY, 2011
Visual Studies Gallery: ButterFile, Buffalo, NY, 2011