Juror’s Selections
The following section is presented in alphabetical order. Biographical information has been edited. Prices for available work may be found on p176.
Becky Alley
Lexington, KY
b. 1978 Chattanooga, TN
Education
2005 MFA, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
2000 BFA, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
Residency
2019 Feminist Art Collective International Residency, ARTScape, Toronto, Canada
Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions
2016-19 American Mortal, w/Melissa Vandenberg, traveled to: Morlan Gallery, Transylvania University, Lexington, KY; Pearlman Gallery, Art Academy of Cincinnati, OH; Lamont Gallery, Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH
2019 Tending Edges, w/Colleen Toutant Merrill, Living Arts & Science Center, Lexington, KY
2018 In Memoriam, Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, IN
Group Exhibitions
2019 Materializing Resistance, Feminist Art Project International Symposium, Lexington, KY
2018 In Their Element, Spartanburg Art Museum, Spartanburg, SC 48 Stunden Neukölln, Galerie im Körnerpark, Berlin, Germany
2017 One 7, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH XX Invitational, Fisch Haus, Wichita, KS
Awards
2018 Research Travel Grant, Great Meadows Foundation Artist Enrichment Grant Kentucky Foundation for Women
2017 Research Travel Grant, Great Meadows Foundation South Arts Prize, Kentucky Fellowship
Collections
Rolling Knob Press, University of Indiana Virginia Commonwealth University
Alley
In recent years, I have used the politically charged topic of war as a point of entry into conversations about power, gender, and memory. I gravitate toward materials that are common in everyday domestic life and, through a simple repetitive process of counting, transform them into memorials for the war dead. The ephemeral and delicate nature of the work stands in contrast to the hypermasculine monolithic forms of marble and stone often associated with memorials. The processes employed speak to labor, struggle, endurance, and ritual, while the materials serve to reframe our collective understanding of power in ways that give strength to culturally feminized notions like empathy, compassion, and mindfulness. My work aims to challenge the patriarchal perception of war as valorous with the feminist notion that war (like most social ills) is disproportionately experienced by the most vulnerable members of society.
John Alleyne
Baton Rouge, LA
646.301.4820
johnsealleyne@gmail.com / www.johnalleyne.com / @iam_johnalleyne
b. 1990 Barbados, West Indies
Education
2018 MFA, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
2014 BFA, State University of New York at Potsdam, Potsdam, NY
Residencies
2020 Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, CO
2019 ACRE Residency, Steuben, WI
2018 Ox-Bow, Saugatuck, MI
Professional Experience
2019 Adjunct Professor, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
Solo Exhibitions
2019 Firehouse Gallery, Baton Rouge, LA
2018 Kindred Spirits in Conversation, Visual Arts Gallery, Southern University and A&M College, Baton Rouge, LA Convenient Camouflage, Alfred C. Glassell Jr. Gallery, LSU College of Art & Design, Baton Rouge, LA
Group Exhibitions
2019 Art Flow, LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, LA
2018 Whoop! Whoop!, Ox-Box Gallery, Saugatuck, MI Encounters, Good Children Gallery, New Orleans, LA 55th Annual Juried Competition, Masur Museum of Art, Monroe, LA
Facts!, PARSE’s 5th Annual Southeast Louisiana Juried Student Exhibition, The Engine Room, New Orleans, LA
2017 Art in Ireland Showcase, Burren College of Art, Ballyvaughan, Ireland
Award
2019 1st Place, Art Flow (juried exhibition), Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge
Alleyne
My recent work is a meditation on the Black male experience. I challenge stereotypes of Black masculinity by presenting allegorical narratives in the aesthetic of the hairstyle-guide posters commonly found in Black barbershops. The individuals depicted in these posters tend to be anonymous, identified only by number. By borrowing these images, I hope to inspire young Black men to break with harmful conventions of representation and see themselves in their own individuality—as more than a number.
Using spray paint and silkscreen collage, I present complex textures reminiscent of urban walls and public surfaces. The works are also intended to replicate the energy and reverence of Baroque and Italian Renaissance paintings, and the weathered textures of Greek sculpture. Distortion of image and surface are used to de-stress stereotypes of the Black male, while simultaneously elevating representation to a state of transcendence. I place portraits of Black men and youth “sitting in barbershop chairs”—images that reveal moments of vulnerability, anxiety, and introspection that speak to their experience at large.
Curtis Ames
Atlanta, GA
mr.curtisames@gmail.com / www.curtisames.com / @mr.curtisames
b. 1978 Columbus, OH
Education
2014 MFA, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA
2002 BFA, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions
2019 less than more, Forward Arts Foundation, Atlanta, GA It Could Happen to You, w/Candice Greathouse, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, CO
2015 in general, MINT, Atlanta, GA
2014 unfictional, Ernest G. Welch Gallery, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA
Group Exhibitions
2017 WORK, Formations Studio, Atlanta, GA The Game Show, Lyndon House Arts Center, Athens, GA
2016 Elegant Simplicity, Nightingale Gallery, Eastern Oregon University, La Grande, OR
2015 Sprawl! Drawing Outside the Lines, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
2013 AQUA Art Miami, AQUA Hotel, Miami, FL
2007 New Life Visuals, New Life Shop, Berlin, German Scientific Aesthetics, Altered Aesthetics, Minneapolis, MN
Awards
2018 Emerging Artist Award, Forward Arts Foundation
2014 Leap Year Artist, MINT
Collection
High Museum of Art
Ames
My creative and scholarly research has evolved out of an ongoing interest in effort, achievement, and the ethics of irresolvability. Working across disciplines, I focus on the ways in which material and procedural conditions define form and content. Specific gestures have a certain kind of power, and within my work there is a casual and undemanding level of agency, suggestive of an inherent struggle against the pressures of success and a knowing resignation that comes with always falling short. Uncomplicated and seemingly flippant
