ALISON HURLEY
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Throughout my work you may find one thing in common: repetition in shapes, lines and images. I find it both challenging and relaxing to repeat; there is a mass-produced effortless quality, but up close you will find infinite variety in the quality and size of each mark. Many of my pieces are named after the meditative (and sometimes laborious) process it takes to create each drawing, print or illustration.

I am interested in dichotomous relationships of existence and the sensations they cause; being present and distant simultaneously, apart and a part at the same time, micro and macro, controlled chaos, etc.

A lot of us experience dichotomous sensations on a day to day basis (for example highway hypnosis or day dreams) and less often during euphoric or catastrophic events (some may describe this as an out of body experience accompanied by physical, psychological and emotional manifestations). I have experienced this sensation similarly to the way others have, but also while drawing; through focusing intently, hours have passed and a drawing has appeared!

You can see someone experiencing this sensation in my portraiture as well as the results of the activity of trying to create this sensation in some of my abstract work. They are both a depiction and a result of these dichotomous sensations.

BFA, SUNY Fredonia
MFA, Kendall College of Art and Design

EXHIBITION HISTORY

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2011:
  • Store. Avenue for the Arts Consignment Shop, Grand Rapids, Michigan
  • MiniMasters, Dinderbeck Studios, Grand Rapids, Michigan

2010:
  • Free Radical, Open Source Gallery, Grand Rapids, Michigan
  • Soup: A Metaphor for Community, Dinderbeck Studio, Grand Rapids, Michigan
  • Art.Downtown, Grandville Studios, Grand Rapids, Michigan
  • Michigan: Land of Riches, Old Public Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan
  • Monroe Community Center, Grand Rapids, Michigan
  • Concentration, Kendall College of Art and Design Galleries, Grand Rapids, Michigan

2008:
  • Choosing by Chance, Kendall College of Art and Design Galleries, Grand Rapids, Michigan *Small group show of three artists
  • Open House, Kendall College of Art and Design Galleries, Grand Rapids, Michigan

2007:
  • Fall for the Arts, South Division Gallery, Grand Rapids, Michigan
  • Open House, Kendall College of Art and Design Galleries, Grand Rapids, Michigan
  • Exchange, University of Buffalo Galleries, Buffalo. New York
  • The Closers: A Show to Die For, Michael C. Rockefeller Art Gallery, Fredonia, New York
  • BFA Thesis Exhibition

2006:
  • Fredonia Five, 140 Central Gallery, Fredonia, New York
  • Art Forum, Williams Center, Fredonia, New York *Received first place

2005:
  • Music as Art, Adams Art Gallery, Dunkirk, New York

JURIED EXHIBITIONS

2010:
  • ArtPrize, LaFontsee Gallery/Underground Studios, Grand Rapids, Michigan *Collaborative with Taylor Greenfield, Juror: Patricia Philips, Dean of Graduate Studies at the Rhode Island School of Design
  • 82nd Regional Exhibition, Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, Michigan *Juror: Jim Nawara, Painter and Professor at Wayne State University

2007:
  • Great Lakes Emerging Artist Competition, Adams Art Gallery, Dunkirk, New York *Juror: Elizabeth Switzer, Director of Programming, Rochester Contemporary

2006 & 2005:
  • Faculty Choice, Michael C. Rockefeller Art Gallery, Fredonia, New York

2005:
  • Great Lakes Emerging Artist Competition, Michael C. Rockefeller Art Gallery *Juror: Louis Grachos, Director, Albright Knox Art Gallery

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2011:
  • Merriam Hall First Park Congregational Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan

2010:
  • Present, Kendall College of Art and Design Galleries, Grand Rapids, Michigan *MFA Thesis Exhibition

2006:
  • InResolution, Emmitt Christian Gallery, Fredonia, New York

2006:
  • Good Vibrations gallery, Lily Dale, New York

CURATOR AND JUROR


2011:
  • Juror: Scholastic Art & Writing Award, Kendall College of Art and Design Galleries, Grand Rapids, Michigan

2010:
  • Curator: Free Radical, 44 Ionia Free Radical Galleries, Grand Rapids, Michigan
  • Curator: ArtPrize, Merriam Hall of First Park Congregational, Grand Rapids, Michigan
  • Curator: Art.Downtown, Grandville Studios, Grand Rapids, Michigan

2007:
  • Curator: Great Lakes Emerging Artist Competition, Adams Art Gallery, Dunkirk, New York2006:
  • Curator: Fredonia Five, 140 Central Gallery, Fredonia, New York

VOLUNTEER AND MEMBERSHIPS


2011:
  • Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts, Panelist giving a personal account of my experience collaborating with community groups
  • Avenue for the Arts Advisory Board

2010:
  • Site:Lab install assistant for Alicia Wierschke, Printmaker
  • Art.Downtown Planning Committee Member with Avenue for the Arts
  • Founder of MEGA (Michigan Emerging Graduate Artist) Juried Exhibition

2009:
  • WorSub Films, Animator, 48-Hour Film Project, Buffalo, New York

2007:
  • Instructor, East Grand Rapids Middle School Art Club

2007:
  • Set Design Assistant, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, SUNY Fredonia
  • SUNY Fredonia Art Forum

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND AWARDS


2012:
  • Manifest: International Drawing Annual 6, Publication coming in January 2012

2011:
  • Rapid Growth, Present: An Artist’s Response To Hard Times by Tommy Allen

2008:
  • Studio Visit Magazine, Open Studio Press, Boston, Massachusetts *Juror: Carl Belz, Director Emeritus, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University and Managing Editor, Art New England Magazine
2007:
  • Scholarship to Kendall College of Art and Design Master of Fine Arts Program

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