ABLE BROYLES: reflected light, cast shadow

Clay Art Center Gallery, June 23 - Aug 04, 2022

Annabelle “Able” Broyles is Clay Art Center’s Rittenberg Artist in Residence. They earned their BFA from the University of Georgia - Lamar Dodd School of Art. Able has spent the last three years in New Orleans, LA working as an auto mechanic. They completed their Post Baccalaureate studies at Tulane University in 2020. Able has exhibited works in solo and group exhibitions in Louisiana, Georgia and Italy.

Artist Statement

“My work is an excavation of memory, the mind, and where we hold core events in our bodies. I am interested in the subconscious and where identity and the concept of “I” come into play. A separation of identity and outward presentation is something I explore and process through my art. 

Through the action of making, I access deeper parts of myself; my hands become interpreters for concepts and feelings I do not yet have the language for. As I work on an object, I record what messages come up for me and what I see echoing in my surroundings. These messages are logged in fingerprints in the soft clay or hair and fiber samples harvested from daily life. I work with clay because of the story it can tell through the evidence of process. Like clay, the subjects of my work begin underground, shapeless and soft— becoming more defined and structured as they are unearthed. Though my work is often rooted in the personal, it holds universal truths that speak to the human experience of identity, consciousness, and community.”

Watch Able introduce their Exhibition.

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