September 11, 2014 - Andrea Hasler

I found a new artist that uses grotesque imagery to fuel her work.  She creates bloody 'human' sculptures.  She renders objects such as purses, clutches, shoes, and tents out to be made of intestines and human material.  They are repulsive yet I don't want to look away.  Though the main context of her work is different than mine, I appreciate how much guts (no pun intended) she has in creating graphic and disturbing imagery.  Its the kind of work that holds the viewer's gaze, no matter his or her  opinion.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/24/andrea-hasler_n_4816576.html

Here is a peek of Andrea Hasler's work:

September 3, 2014- LAUREN GALLASPY

I was browsing through the library's articles and I found an article on Lauren Gallaspy.  She is a ceramic artist that creates intricate ambiguous forms.  I find her work entrancing how she combines three dimensional and two dimensional imagery. I love the grotesque quality to her work, how she creates the illusions of these fleshy mounds of flesh, with ears or anatomical-esque features.  Also the surfaces are to die for with layering of under glaze,gouache and varnish.  As the viewer, you are pulled in the simulated depth.

West, Christina.  "Lauren Gallaspy's Workmanship of Risk."  Ceramics:  Art and Perception.  90 (2012): 54-57.  Academic Search Complete. Web 28 Aug 2014

Here is a link to her website, where she has numerous examples of her awesome surfaces!

http://www.laurengallaspy.com/

Finally, here is an artist statement from Lauren Gallaspy.  I included her description/ artist statement because I like the exploratory nature of her ambiguous forms.  At the moment in my own work I have started dealing with anamorphic sculptural forms that deal with the unknown.  I have attributed them to the grotesque genre but they may be something entirely different.

"My attention centers around a longing for interaction with objects existing within the border space between the known and the unknown.  I wish to make work in which controversial hierarchies of value- the concrete over the imaginary, fact over fiction, efficiency over pleasure-- are dismantled, their parts rearranged to form objects through which pathos, obsession, and imagination are encouraged. Imagination is not utilized as a retreat from, but rather a recognition of, the startlingly specific ways we make sense of ourselves and our surroundings.  In material form, the imaginative act becomes a way to help shorten the distance between what happens inside our heads and outside our bodies.  Clay is utilized in this activity as a covert material-- a thicket in which animals of association may hide."

Lauren Gallaspy.  Ceramics Monthly. May 2010, Vol. 58 Issue 5: 46