ali o'leary
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Our current world is mediated through a screen where images are both literally flat and thin while depicting texture and volume in high resolution. We yearn for the most luscious images while our relationship to tangible, historic and archival objects dwindles and erodes. Even our connection to our physical body and memories seem to become secondary to their digital representation on social media.
 
My artwork combines handcrafted embroideries, hand-dyed fabrics and one-of a kind antique textiles with sleek analog and digital photographs. The digital collage of these elements are then printed on new fabric and re-stitched or quilted back into in order to create textures that invite touch while evading a clear understanding of how they exist in space and depth. By confusing the viewer with what is printed and what is three-dimensional I hope to reflect how we currently navigate back and forth between digital flat spaces and our physical, tactile world.
 
The sewn elements in my artwork intrinsically reference themes of craft, “women’s work,” Southern customs and the maker movement. Meanwhile, the printed aspects refer to traditional and new digital photographic processes. By melding these processes I wish to explore how histories and personal narratives play out in contemporary contexts. The work often reflects on themes of Southern and feminine identity and the true and false histories we weave.
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​I grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I received my Bachelors from Barnard College at Columbia University in New York City and earned a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD. I went on to receive a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2013. Before returning to the South, I returned to New York City for several years where I worked in a fashion design studio and for an architecture firm. I have experience teaching art and design to a wide range of students as well as doing freelance work in the Photography, Fashion and Publishing. I have exhibited in galleries across the Southeast, live in Atlanta, and currently work as an Adjunct Professor of Photography, Art Appreciation, and Design at Georgia Gwinnett College and Georgia Military College. 





  • Home
  • Work
    • Current Work
    • Older Work >
      • Dresses and Quilts
      • Boundary
      • Episode
      • Hoarders
  • Statement
  • CV
  • News
  • Contact