URL: http://www.alishawessler.com Residencies include: Space and Time Artist Residency at Guttenberg Arts, Guttenberg, NJ (2017); NARS International Artist Residency Program, Brooklyn, NY (2016); Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) Program at The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY (2016); Wave Hill Winter Workspace Residency, Bronx, NY (2015); MeetFactory Residency Program, Prague, Czech Republic (2011) Exhibitions include: Bronx Calling: The Fourth AIM Biennial, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY (2017); Art in Odd Places (AIOP) 2017: SENSE, New York, NY (2017); Source Material, InCube Art Space, New York, NY (2016); With Passion, Slag Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2016); Converging Paths, Objects, and Selves, NARS Foundation (2016); A Story of a Story, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY (2015); Highly Recommended, Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, MI (2014); From Afar It Is an Island, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, Ann Arbor, MI (2013)
Education: MFA, Stamps School of Art & Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI; Certificate in Museum Studies, History of Art Department (2013) BFA, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Concentration in Fiber and Material Studies (2006)
Alisha Wessler’s work explores hybrid objects, their narrative potential and taxonomic slippage. The drawings and objects she makes occupy the indeterminate realm between reality and dream, nature and artifice. Characterized by alchemy-like processes, Wessler manipulates a variety of found materials in intricate processes that rely on time and experimentation: drawings resembling the structure of lace, miniature sculptures including embroidered bird feet, meticulously carved thorns, a tower-like structure encrusted with crystallized salt, or masks sewn from cloth and anointed with mud. Wessler is interested in tapping into uncanny territory, where the familiar commingles with the unknown, strange and often foreboding.
