Ashleigh Abbott
Digital Color Photograph, 2011
CURRICULUM VITAE
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EDUCATION
2023 Parsons, New School, New York, NY- MFA (Fine Arts) - in progress
2022 25 E 13th Gallery Curatorial Fellow, Parsons, The New School
2021 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico — BFA
2011 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico — BUS
2009-2011 Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain
2008 Gaia Education, Certificate in Sustainable Urban Design, Albuquerque, NM
2007 Summer Course in Oaxaca, Mexico— Curandersimo Certificate
2007 Spanish Medical Language Course, Oaxaca, Mexico
2001-2002 Santa Fe Community College, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2000 Seattle Central Community College, Seattle, Washington
1999-2000 Internship in Documentary Filming Making, Subhari Network, Mumbai, India
1998 Internship with Scott Baxter, Commercial Photography, Scottsdale, AZ
1997 Screenwriting Course, College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico
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EXHIBITION RECORD
2023 Thesis Show Aaronson/Keller Gallery Manhattan, NYC, NY
There is Only After, MC Gallery, Manhattan, NYC, NY
2022 ALGO(RYTHM), Tanthem Collective Popup Group Show, Manhattan, NYC, NY
First Steps into Fire (Performance), This Flesh is All I have to Offer Group Show, Grace Exhibition Space, Manhattan (NYC), NY
Open Studios, Parsons 25 E 13th Building, Manhattan, NYC, NY
Everything Her You Saw Last Night, Group Show, 25 E 13th Gallery at Parsons, New School, Manhattan (NYC), NY
2021 Sex, Money, Trash - Group Show, 25 E 13th Gallery at Parsons, New School, Manhattan (NYC), NY
2020 Covington Rhode Senior Prize Winner Exhibition
Bio Design Challenge International, Virtual Exhibit, NYC Based
2019 Intersections of Digital and Physical Media Group Show, UNM ArtsLAB, Albuquerque, NM
2018- Urban Abstractions, Solo Show, Ojo Optique, Albuquerque, NM
2012 International Symposium of Electronic Arts (ISEA), Albuquerque Museum with Meow Wolf, Albuquerque, NM
2011 City Invitational Photo Show, Meknes, Morocco
2010 Group Show, Granada, Spain
2000 De-generated Poetry, Group Show, Seattle Central Community College, Seattle, WA
1998 Solo exhibit, Portraits on Metal, Aztec Cafe, Santa Fe, NM
CURATING
2023 There is Only After, Gallery MC, Manhattan, NYC
2022 Parsons 25 E 13th Gallery Curator Fellowship, The New School, NYC
Everything Her You Saw Last Night, Group Show, 25 E 13th Gallery, (NYC), NY
Trash, Sex, Money, 25 E 13th Gallery, (NYC), NY
2013 Love, Hydra Gallery. Albuquerque, NM
2012 Home, Hydra Gallery. Albuquerque, NM
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AWARDS
2020 Covington Rhode Senior Prize Winner
2020 Winner of New Mexico Chapter of Bio Design Challenge (BDC)
2016 9th International Color Awards Nominee, Tracks, International (Online)
1998 2nd Place Winner, Emerging Photographers of New Mexico, Santa Fe Community College Main Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
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PRESS
2020 KUNM University Showcase with Megan Kamerick, Brillo The Snail, Radio Interview
2020 KRQE Local News, Brillo The Snail, Televised Interview
2020 UNM Newsroom, Brillo The Snail, Print Interview
2020 Daily Lobo (UNM University Paper), Brillo The Snail, Print Interview
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PUBLICATION AS AUTHOR
2012 “Cuentame Ya- Experiences in Morocco During Arab Spring 2010-2011; the Protesting Frontlines, Child Immigration, and an Exiled Candidate from the Democratic Republic of the Congo” Published online 2012, removed from online for revisions.
SKILLS
Digital and analog photography, alternative photographic processes, digital printing, chemical darkrooms, video, lighting, Adobe Photoshop, Premier Pro, and After Effects, sculpture, electronic art, electronics, painting, ceramics, metal work, woodwork, textile and fabric, paper, new media, plastics, glo forge, 3D printing, agar art, biology, chemistry, physics, dance, choreography, Kinesthesiology, new medias, bio-fabrication, material invention, puppet making, puppet and monster making mechanics, makeup artistry.
TRAVEL/FOREIGN LANGUAGES SPOKEN
Fluent Spanish, intermediate French, beginning Bulgarian, beginning German. Lived in Granada, Spain from 2009-2011, Albuquerque, NM 2006-2009 and 2011 to the present, New York City from 2003-2005, Boston from 2001-2003, Seattle from 2000-2001 Mumbai, India from1999-2000, Santa Fe, NM from 1992-1999 and 2005-2006.
Traveled around the Mid 48 of the US, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Cuba, Canada, Bali, China, Hong Kong, Nepal, India, Morocco, Tunisia, Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Northern Macedonia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Czechia, Austria, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, England.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2022 Curatorial Fellow for 25 E13th Gallery, Parsons Fine Arts, The New School
2013-2015 Adjunct Professor of Photography and Fundamentals of Graphic Design, Santa Fe University of Art and Design, Santa Fe, NM
2013-2015 SFUAD Grip House Manager and System Designer, Santa Fe University of Art and Design, Santa Fe, NM
2012-2014 Lead Documentary Videographer, Jim Cooney Productions
2011-2013 Curator of Hydra Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
2011-2014 Camera Operator and Grip on various local small and medium sized film productions
2012 48 Hour Music Video Film Fest Organizer, Promoter, Presenter, Albuquerque, NM
2010-2019 Assistant to photographer to Daniel Peebles, Photography, Lighting, Casting, Model, Collaborator
Volunteer Record
2016 Babes and Bullies Calendar photographer
2012 Crossroads For Women, Volunteering, Organizing, Photo documentary projects with women in transitional programs, Albuquerque, NM
2006-2010 Casa de Salud, Medical Assistant, Volunteer Organizing and training, Grant Writing, Handbook Writing, Albuquerque, NM
2007 Agencia De Rap, Fundraising and equipment procurement, Volunteering, Training, Havana, Cuba
2006-2009 Hip Hop en Cuba, Fundraising, Party Planning, Materials Supplying, Havana, Cuba/Albuquerque, NM
2006-2008 Kalpulli Izkalli, Volunteering, Book Keeping, Organization of Volunteers, Albuquerque, NM
2006-2008 ABQ2Cuba, Volunteer Organizing, Materials and Supply Gathering, Fundraising, Party Planning, Resistance and Protest Training, Albuquerque, NM
2006-2008 IFCO/Pastor for Peace, Organizing, Materials and Supply Gathering, Fundraising Volunteering, Albuquerque, NM/Cuba
Ashleigh Abbott is an interdisciplinary artist who makes work around the topics of masculinity, social forms, motherhood, nature, play and desire. Her practice is research based, investigating critical discourses around gender and the intertwined histories of misogyny and supremacies in policy, science and religion. Her work often emerges in speculative, abstract, and humorous ways that range from performance to sculpture, painting, or sound.
She has been awarded Covington Rhodes Prize and The Bio Design Challenge Award as well as multiple other awards from national and international organizations. She was the 2022 Curator Fellow at Parsons, The New School. Her work has been shown in New York in exhibitions at Gallery MC, the Aronson Gallery, Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons 25 East 13th Gallery, Grace Exhibition Space, along with other exhibitions through the United States, Spain and Morocco.
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Statement
Artist statement:
Ashleigh Abbott is an interdisciplinary artist with a research based practice. Her investigations seek to understand how social ills such as school shootings, incel culture and gender-based violence are related to policy and scientism that is embedded with supremacist, religious and patriarchal biases. The writings of Julia Kristeva, Donna Haraway, Maggie Nelson and clowning practice of Adriana Medina help to inform her rebellious twists that employ intimacy and engage discovery and joy found throughout her art practice.
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Her work in conversation with AI glimpses into the collective mind of western cultural biases which she focuses on futurity and desire. In this exploration, she created a set of botanical/human hybrid action figures that playfully reimagine how masculinity can exist without pain and violence and harmoniously alongside other gender expressions in a posthuman world. In her monumental sculpture, Paradise, iridescent synthetic hair and salt are combined in a quasi-abstract pose of the black sickle bill’s mating dance. She values this bird as an emblem of natures capacity to prioritize beauty above struggle, shattering the view that strong-arm hierarchies are the way of the world.