Allison Spence

Allison Spence
Tallahassee, Florida, USA

STATEMENT

My work centers around hybridity and monstrosity, focusing on how we categorize and delimit the structures within culture that engender these devices. To approach something with taxonomic efficiency, while perhaps reassuring or beautiful, is also an act of violence. My works are often partially textile, somewhat-a-photo, or multilayered and three-dimensional. My chosen materials and subject matter follow a collaging mentality. Previous subjects have included the asexually budding horror villain, Tomie, the kudzu vine, and—enduringly—teratomas (“monstrous tumors,” known for containing multiple tissues from around the body). My current working series, Untitled Frankenstein, is inspired by my decade-long fascination with teratomas and the recent parallel development of one within my own body. My goal is to create work where previously delineated forms are exposed as inherently malleable, where their identities are in flux, and where our expectations of them are subverted.

BIO

Allison Spence is an interdisciplinary artist who creates collage, video, writing, and mixed media objects about patterns of indeterminacy, or states of hybridity, within nature and culture. Her work frequently branches into different fields, such as biology, horror, botany, science fiction, and American art history. She received an MFA at the University of California, San Diego, a BFA in Art, and a BA in Art History at the University of Florida. Her work has been in publications such as The Washington Post and New American Paintings. Spence was the recipient of the Mid Atlantic Arts Fellowship (2016) and the Hamiltonian Fellowship (2014-16) and her work has been included in the Washingtoniana Collection of the District of Columbia’s Public Library. She has exhibited both internationally and nationally, including in South Korea, Southern California, Washington D.C., and Miami, Florida. Spence is currently living and working in Tallahassee, Florida, and is an Assistant Professor of Art at Florida State University.

ARTIST CONTACT

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allison-spence.com

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