Exhibit Provides Solace from Stress of Modern Life

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A photograph of Ashley V. Blalock’s Keeping Up Appearances installation that is coming to GCC’s Roz Steiner Art Gallery

BATAVIA, NY (01/07/2016)(readMedia)-- Ashley V. Blalock creates objects and site-specific installations inspired by everyday artifacts from the domestic sphere. Through her work, she explores themes of discomfort and the coping mechanisms used to provide solace from the stress and trauma of modern life. Her current installation series, Keeping Up Appearances, can be seen in the Rosalie "Roz" Steiner Art Gallery at Genesee Community College beginning on January 28, 2016.

An artist's lecture and two opening receptions are planned for that same day, Thursday, January 28, 2016, with the lecture from 12:30 - 1 p.m., and the first reception from 1 – 2 p.m. and the evening reception scheduled for 5 – 7 p.m. All events are free and open to the public.

Blalock uses the meditative process of crochet where every stitch is evidence of work by hand. This slow, methodical process is a remedy to a world increasingly comprised of virtual connections, quick transitions, planned obsolescence and instant gratification. Keeping Up Appearances is comprised of giant red doilies that take on a life of their own as they crawl up the gallery walls and swallow the viewer. Instead of serving as benign little white furniture coverings, these red forms unsettle viewers and demand their attention, hinting at a darker reality at home.

Born and raised in San Diego, CA, Blalock holds an MFA in sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute, an MA in art history from the University of California Riverside, and a BA in painting from San Diego State University. In 2009, she was a resident at the Skowhegan School of painting and Sculpture. She has had solo installations at the Nevada Museum of Art, the Lion Brand Yarn Studio in New York, the Last Bookstore in Los Angeles and her work has been exhibited in group exhibitions at the Craft in America Center, Mingei International Museum, and Arthouse at the Jones Center. Her work has been reviewed in the San Diego Tribune and by Fluent~Collaborative, and featured in Vogue Knitting Crochet and Interweave Crochet Magazine.

Blalock was recently honored with the Fiber Art Now Paul J. Smith Prize for Excellence in Fibers Award and also received the 2014 Vermont Studio Center Artist Grant. She currently teaches college art and art history in Southern California and splits her time between San Diego and San Bernardino, California.

Ashley V. Blalock's Keeping Up Appearances will be on display at the Roz Steiner Art Gallery from January 28 through February 26, 2016. The exhibit can be viewed during regular gallery hours, which are Monday-Friday 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

For more information on all upcoming events at the Roz Steiner Art Gallery visit www.genesee.edu/gallery or www.facebook.com/gccgallery.

For general GCC information, contact Marketing Communications Associate Director Donna Rae Sutherland at (585) 343-0055 ext. 6616, or via email: dsutherland@genesee.edu.

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Editor's Note:

For a photograph of Ashley V. Blalock's Keeping Up Appearances installation that is coming to GCC's Roz Steiner Art Gallery go to: http://marketing.genesee.edu/images/Blalock_Exhibit1.jpg