Artist in Residence - August 2022
Najah Thomas-Young
I am a Detroit-based, fringe artist working to intentionally push emotional boundaries with viewers, focusing on creating physical environments based on internal processes. Using garment design and sculpture as the core of my work while exploring writing, film and music in addition to the pieces in order to accurately portray an experience. I find that my conceptual ideas can be expressed more accurately through fashion using human forms and curated spaces. Life-sized or larger human forms can alter the perception of space alone, depending on the viewer’s understanding of the story, it can alter one's perception of self.
My residency at Riachuelo is introducing me to using trees in more human forms, exploring what types of garment shapes will come of it and how each piece will develop my personal style of patterning for humans. The goal is to truly and accurately communicate through these mediums from a standpoint of unwavering curiosity.
Artist in Residence - July 2022
Ashley Benton
Ashley is a mixed media artist living in Savanah, GA. She has been exhibiting her work for more than twenty years across the county and beyond. After graduating from the Savannah College of Art and Design she followed her love of big mountains, clear rivers and blue skies to Colorado . There she continued to make art, raise a son, teach art, open a yoga studio, ride horses and travel to juried art shows. In 2014, Ashley moved home to Georgia and began focusing on gallery representation and small shops and boutiques. Currently she is represented by the Wally Workman Gallery, Austin, TX and the Ivy Brown Gallery, NYC.
Ashley’s work is based on the emotional experience of living a life.She attempts to unveil the marvelous in the everyday, create a sense of wonder, engage her mind and open a dialogue with the viewer. The work is never an exact representation much like a writer of fiction. The work hovers in the in-between —Less than Reality More than a Dream…
Artist in Residence - June 2022
Stephanie Spindler, Ph.D.
Stephanie Spindler is an international artist who relocated back to Colorado after living sixteen years abroad in the United Kingdom. She recently completed her practice-based Ph.D. at Chelsea College of Art. Currently, she teaches at UNC in the School of Art and Design and lives in Fort Collins. Her residency at Riachuelo will embark on a new investigation and body of work themed around Making Things in the Dark. This research embodies uncertainty and intimacy, exploring desire, fear, and hope. You can learn more about her and see her work at www.spindlerart.com.