Sophia_Allison

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Knotbarnacles

Orangebarkpeel #2

Roots

Sophia Allison

Redbarkpeel #9

Artist Statement

Sophia Allison earned an MFA in 2001 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a BFA from East Carolina University (Greenville, NC) in 1996. She works in a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture and installation. Her work has been in several exhibitions within the U.S and abroad including Kitsch Catch in both Lille and Sete, France; American Artists and Their Tour of Korea in Seoul at the Insa Art Center and Gallery Ann; the Chautauqua 45th National Exhibition of American Art at the Chautauqua Center for the Visual Arts in Chautauqua, NY, juried by Robert Storr, former Senior Curator at the Museum of Modern Art as well as the juried annual Southern California Open Show exhibitions (2004-2007) at the Los Angeles Art Association/Gallery 825 and the group exhibition Liminal at Phantom Galleries in Pasadena, CA. Her work was featured on the cover of the publication New American Paintings, Western Edition #42, juried by Michael Auping, Chief Curator of Museum of Modern Art at Fort Worth, TX. In 2006, she was one of (6) artists that created “Sweater,” a collaborative installation directed by artist Tim Hawkinson. She lives and works in Los Angeles.

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About the work

Sophia constructs abstracted, collaged soft-sculpture that reference organic forms found in nature. Using a combination of recycled/discarded consumer product packaging, cardboard, coffee filters, fabric and other pedestrian, common materials, she create objects that allude to the formal qualities of everyday flora such as tree bark and plant root structures.

The work is very process-oriented and tactile; the material acts as a guide in the creation of the art. Most all of the works are machine-sewn; the sewing machine acts as a drawing, painting and binding instrument, an extension of the hand. The seams, edges and threads are left exposed and rough.

Her art-making processes are repetitive, methodical, obsessive and meditative and speak to the nature of the work as she is influenced by the day-to-day tasks that occupy mundane routines in daily life.