Ashley Garner

Artist

Ash Garner - THECOLORG (b. 1991 Martinsburg, PA) is a millennial feminine queer interdisciplinary artist based in Philadelphia, PA. She holds an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and a BFA from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. Teddy bears and stuffed decorative objects made by her memaw and great aunt line the shelves of her mom’s hutches, and throughout her childhood stuffed animals were her source of inspiration and play. Ash's connection with soft objects has become a way for her to express concerns and ideas using visual and tactile symbology. She creates soft sculpture, plush, site-specific installations, photographs, and video that bridge her childhood and adulthood experiences to challenge binaries, bias, and societal expectations of bodies, labor, and consumption. THECOLORG's work reckons with her upbringing within a religious rural Americana and deconstructs learned perceptions creating space for conversations about autonomy, accessibility, expression, resistance, and acknowledges the rural as a place of contemporary art and culture. Her intent is to interrupt expectations of a place, thing, or idea creating an unexpected moment of critical thought around a presented concept.

THECOLORG has been exhibited at museums, galleries and institutions that include Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center - In Association with the Smithsonian Institution, Solomons, MD; Payne Gallery of Moravian University, Bethlehem, PA; Lycoming College Gallery, Williamsport, PA; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Cherry Street Pier, Philadelphia, PA; Point Park University, Pittsburgh, PA; Westin Convention Center, Pittsburgh, PA; Framehouse & Jask Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA; The Brewhouse Association, Pittsburgh, PA; Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Edinboro, PA; and the Erie Art Museum, Erie, PA. Ash has attended residencies at Chautauqua Visual Arts, the Studios at MASS MoCA, and the Walkaway House. She is a Continuing Education Program Coordinator at Moore College of Art & Design where she supports accessible arts programming for artists of all ages.