Team Update: Mariana Rey, Gallery Associate

From Abigail Ogilvy, Owner and Director; and Kaylee Hennessey, Assistant Director:

Mariana Rey, Gallery Associate, Abigail Ogilvy Gallery

The Abigail Ogilvy Gallery team is thrilled to announce the appointment of our newest gallery associate, Mariana Rey. Mariana joined us in early September this year and has proven to be an immediate force in the Boston art scene, and a wonderful addition to our team.

Mariana earned her BFA in Visual Arts from the Pontifical Xavierian University of Colombia in 2022. As a visual artist, she is also interested in curatorial studies that focus on uplifting underrepresented individuals while providing new ways for viewers to interact with art.

In addition to her work at Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, Mariana currently works at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston as a Visitor Assistant, engaging with visitors about the artworks as a member of the Education Department. 

In her personal artistic practice, she uses media such as illustration, photography, and animation to explore and address her interests towards the body, gender, and territory, understanding the intimate as a political power.

Having been with us for just over a month now, Mariana has brought an incredible curatorial expertise and consideration to the position, and we are honored to be working together.

Artist Spotlight: Alex McClay

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery is proud to announce that we are working with artist Alex McClay, an interdisciplinary artist who lives and works in Cincinnati, Ohio. We recently sat down with McClay to discuss her artistic practice, her inspirations, and her incorporation of text and writing into her work:

Alex McClay wearing her work Believe Her; Them; Us, 2021.
Emergency blanket, fabric, thread, 36 x 30 in.

Abigail Ogilvy: Can you take us through your journey to become an artist?
Alex McClay: It started in undergrad. I went to school for Psychology/Environmental Science, and I hated the initial courses. I had started getting really into Photography and somehow, I convinced my parents to let me transfer to art school. When I was in art school, I studied abroad in Italy and it was a game changer. I was able to take courses there that were very craft-focused. These included a jewelry class and a book arts and papermaking class. That’s also where I learned about Penland School of Craft in North Carolina, where I ended up studying for two more years after undergrad. There, I studied book arts, papermaking, letterpress printing, small metals, intaglio printing, and weaving, among other things. 

AO: What type of artist do you consider yourself, if any certain type at all?
AM: I would consider myself an interdisciplinary artist. I love experimenting with new media, new materials, and new ways of working. Learning new things keeps my artistic practice alive. I find it difficult to put myself in a specific media-box. At the end of the day, form and content are intertwined - so the form of the work is always changing, depending on what I’m trying to say.

AO: Your materials choices are very intentional and tie heavily into the concepts behind your work. How do you choose your materials for each project?
AM: Sometimes I choose the materials and sometimes the materials choose me. It usually starts with an affinity for something. For example, I use a lot of emergency blankets in my work, which I was introduced to by artist Leigh Suggs in a class. I became totally obsessed with how the material functioned- both in my hands and in its intended use. I thought a lot about what I would have to be experiencing to use one of these blankets in real life. Using this material inspired a series of work that related to trauma. In my work, I was sort of using the material as a metaphorical protectant from the vulnerability of exposing my own stories. 

Alex McClay, 50 Foolproof Ways to Say No, 2019. Handmade abaca paper, lace, thread, 12 x 6 x 1 in. each

AO: There is an amazing vulnerability in your work across media. How has sharing this visually changed your own perception of the meaning behind your artwork?
AM: This is such an interesting question. I think sharing my own stories of vulnerability is an act of resistance. Putting my experiences and vulnerability into the work takes it outside of myself and into the collective consciousness. It’s all about connection - about the possibility of someone viewing the work and feeling that thing that happens to your insides when a piece of art speaks to you. My hope, I suppose, is that sharing my vulnerability inspires others to share theirs, to take the weight off, to feel less alone, and to resist the conception that being strong and brave is the same as being “fine”.  This brings me to the idea of “radical incompleteness”, which is the third step in “Riyaaz” that Raqs Media Collective discusses in “How to be an Artist By Night”. I love the idea that the work of art is never finished, that putting it out into the world means that “there is always room for another author. Context gathers people”.

AO: How are collaborations important to your practice? 
AM: Collaborations, similarly to learning new things, provide fuel for my art practice. Sometimes, someone else can say what I want to so much better than me, or in a way that I would have never thought of. Collaborating means making something that you would never otherwise be able to accomplish. My favorite collaboration was with my brother, Mason, in the book Transmissions. The project started with dialogue - lots of conversations over Christmas in my parent’s basement. From there, we both wrote for the book. We grew up writing together, reading each other our work from across the room before going to bed (we used to share a room back in the day). We both interpreted the conversations we had in such different ways, which I think provides incredible texture in the book. I would have never conceived of the idea for Transmissions by myself - and it’s one of my favorite artist’s books that I’ve made. 

Alex McClay, Tell Me, 2021. Survey tape, emergency blanket, thread, 5 x 5 ft.

AO: You’ve done a number of residencies, do you have a favorite?
AM: It’s so hard to pick a favorite, as each residency has come at such a perfect time in my life. Residencies are so fantastic, especially during times of transition. They always seem to come when I don’t have studio access or I’m in the in-between. Right now, I’m a working artist resident at Tiger Lily Press, which is a community press in Cincinnati, OH. It’s been such a great experience because it’s allowed me to continue my printmaking practice when I otherwise would just be working in a studio from home. This one is long term and has taught me a lot about what it takes to keep an organization like this running, what it’s like to focus on creative practice while working a full time job, and how important and beautiful community engagement is when it comes to making art.

AO: Can you elaborate on the importance of text in your work? 
AM: I grew up writing, as mentioned above. I process everything through writing. So I make lists, I write poems, I take notes. The Notes App on my phone is a total mess. All that is to say, text is such an important mode of communication for me that it would feel strange to not use it in my work, I think. My love of text is what drove me to want to start doing letterpress printing and making artist’s books. When I moved toward larger installation work in graduate school, I thought about those pieces as books, too. They were just bigger and easier to read.  I find I can communicate more effectively by using text, although, I’m always considering going on a text-hiatus and seeing what would happen.

Alex McClay, Courage in Retrospect, 2020. Emergency blanket, survey tape, bamboo yarn, 6 x 6 ft. each

AO: How does the meaning of the text change throughout different methods of presentation (displayed on a wall, in a book, worn, etc.)
AM: It’s not so much that the meaning of the text changes, but that the interpretation of the text may change when presented in unconventional ways. I’m really interested in how written word can take on many meanings simultaneously. It is dependent on so many things: for example, the reader’s understanding of a language, the location of the text on the page, the design of the text or its typeface, and how you have to physically engage with the text: whether you have to listen to it, read it, scroll through it, or even feel it. I think the way we physically engage with text can inform and change its meaning to us. I’m always considering and questioning how form changes content. So I’m always experimenting with new ways of creating, displaying, and interacting with the “book”. 

AO: Finally, what advice do you have for future artists?
AM: Studio practice is not just keeping your head down and making the work (although that is the most important part of it). Studio practice is also applying to the shows, residencies, and dream jobs and showing up to events and openings. Studio practice is also feeding your mind, body, and soul. Go on walks, do yoga, read books, have conversations with friends, experience things that will give you something to make work about. It’s all about the balance. Lastly, If you ever feel like you are in a rut, learn something new. Sometimes all it takes is trying to say something in a new way to inspire creativity.

We look forward to our debut exhibition with Alex McClay in September 2022.

Artist Spotlight: Katelyn Ledford

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery is proud to bring Katelyn Ledford’s hyperrealistic, deconstructed paintings to Spring/Break Art Show this March. Ledford’s artwork contemplates the ways digital technologies dominate our contemporary image-making, especially portraits. She seeks a mode of painting that can slow down the viewers and make them consider our image-saturated, online-obsessed, contemporary reality within the framework of portraiture. Recently, we had the pleasure to engage with Ledford in a conversation about her process of art-making, the pervasiveness of social media, and her candid advice to emerging artists.

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery (AOG): When did you first discover the arts, and why did you decide to pursue it?

Katelyn Ledford (KL): I grew up in the suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama where there was just about nothing going on by way of contemporary art, so I was truly ignorant about the arts besides the highlights in art history. I’ve been practicing Photorealism since I was a kid, but I didn’t start learning about contemporary art until I was in undergrad, and even that was extremely limited. I learned the most through the internet, artist friends, and mentors about what it means to be an artist and find your individual practice in the 21st century.

Compare/Despair, 2019. Oil and acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30 in.

I don’t have a clear moment when I decided to pursue it as a career because art-making has always been a part of me. It’s what I did for fun as a kid despite not knowing people could make careers out of making art and what that even looked like. I definitely became more serious about it while studying fine arts in undergrad and realizing the hustle it takes to make it a career.

AOG: What does your creative process look like? Do you have any routines or rituals?

KL: I’m an image collector— screenshots from my phone, random Google searches, photos of TV shows, anything that gives me a gut feeling. Sometimes I’ll see an image and the narrative immediately jumps into my head, while others are a slow boil to figure out how they can create a dialogue with other images. I’ll create multiple rough sketches in Photoshop using a few of the images, which typically include female figures. Every sketch and idea ends up becoming a portrait, even if it is completely de-constructed. The sketches are just the groundwork though as they change quite a bit once it’s roughed out on the canvas since I work in many layers. My paintings can be labor intensive, which means I’m looking at them a lot. Because of this, I go through phases of being frustrated with the image dialogue and as a result, I end up altering, modifying, and destroying parts. The fun usually happens then when I feel the need to squeeze paint from the tube directly on the canvas or use a quick slash of paint on top of a meticulously painted area. 

AOG: Much of your work speaks to digital technologies and social media. How do you, as an artist, feel about social media? How has it affected your creative process?

KL: As an artist, I love social media. As a female, I hate it. As an everyday person, I hate it. All of these mixed emotions play into the narratives and dialogues within my paintings. Digital technologies are undeniably a part of the average life; therefore, they inextricably influence how I make and see paintings. 

Katelyn Ledford in her studio. Image courtesy of the artist.

AOG: What is your favorite reaction when someone sees your work? How do these reactions influence your work, if at all?

KL: Any reaction is a favorite reaction to me. Indifference, a lack of reaction, means nothing sparked any feeling in the viewer. I want viewers to be able to feel something visceral, have a moment, gain a unique experience­— no matter how that manifests itself in the spectrum of reactions. 

AOG: What advice would you give to a young artist who wants to follow in your footsteps?

KL: Build your community and hustle 24/7. The art world can be unruly and untamed, so having a community to support you and share information with is priceless. From art-making habits while you’re young and/or still in the safety-net of academia because once you’re out, everything will try to get in your way of art-making and distract you. Also, find peers and mentors whose opinions and advice you value and listen to their words while ignoring the toxic voices of others. 

For more Katelyn Ledford’s works, visit Spring / Break Art Show 2020 from March 3 - 9, 2020
625 Madison Avenue, New York, NY

Artist Spotlight: Jamie Romanet

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery had the recent pleasure of speaking with Paris-based artist Jamie Romanet about her artistic influences. Through personal anecdotes, Romanet reflects on childhood memories that have developed into the soulful, honest paintings she creates today.

Image courtesy of Jamie Romanet

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery: What is your background as an artist? What sparked you to become one?

Jamie Romanet: My grandmother was an artist, and from a very young age she gave me a paint brush and oil paint and just let me get to work without any interference. She regularly took me to the Wadsworth Atheneum, and she exposed me to artists like Alice Neel, Jacob Lawrence, Milton Avery and Helen Frankenthaler.

I have a very clear memory of being a child and sitting in her living room sorting through a book on the meaning of lines. There was an undulating line, like a slowly mounting hill which was said to mean loneliness. I decided to paint this line, using the small square format and three block colors. I chose each colour with great intention. It looked a lot like an Etel Adnan painting, whose work I’ve only just become familiar with these last couple years. I was very satisfied with this piece and proud to represent in paint an interior feeling. So, what I am getting at is that I have always been an artist. This urge to represent my feelings in paint has always been there. Becoming one, or living it, is a choice I make everyday when I set up my paints and sit down to get to work.

AOG: What is your favorite reaction from people who view your art? How does that reaction influence your pieces, if at all?

JR: I really appreciate if people tell me my work is touching, or soulful. I interpret this as honest. I think honesty in art work is very important. Paint doesn’t lie, and insincerity can be evident in work. There are many abstract paintings that are soulful or honest, like Agnes Martin’s work for instance or Ilse d’hollander. I hope people do not say soulful because it’s figurative, but rather because the paintings don’t look contrived. That would be the antithesis of what I am aiming to do in my work.

AOG: How does your background of poetry and geography influence your work? Do you ever write your own poetry to accompany a work?

JR: I studied Geography because it encompasses everything related to the land, its features, its inhabitants. I am a curious person and I have an appetite for learning. I remember saying to myself while pursuing these studies that it would make me a better artist.

Jamie Romanet, Zoe, 2019. Ink and watercolor on arches paper. 8 x 8 in.

Poetry, like painting, is something I have been doing since I was a young girl and couldn’t even spell. My first poem ‘whe’ (why) was a series of questions asking an unknown source why all the troubles where happening in the world.. poverty, jail, cruelty. I write from time to time when it strikes me, but I read poetry every day. I find it very soothing and calming and it definitely has a great influence on my work.

AOG: If someone who was unfamiliar with the art world were to see your work, what would be the one thing you would hope that they learned from seeing your pieces?

JR: I think there is a consistent melancholy that comes through in my work and that it speaks about loneliness, and also empathy. I think if someone unfamiliar with the art world were to simply hear this experience then I would be satisfied because then that would mean we are in communication, which is my aim— This is how I am feeling, how are you feeling? With someone who is more familiar with the art world, then I would want to discuss some of my influences like Marisa Merz, Miriam Cahn, Henry Taylor, or Alice Neel. But with anyone, I hope we just get to discussing spirituality and art. This very important and instinctual urge we all have to use material to communicate about our human experience.

AOG: What’s next for your work?

JR: A couple of months ago I read the poem ‘The Pulse of Morning’ by Maya Angelou. This is a wonderful poem, that I take great comfort in. It has inspired a great deal of ideas mediating on the word ‘pulse.’

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To view Jamie Romanet’s works in person, visit Abigail Ogilvy Gallery in Boston, MA.

Blog written by Holly McConnell

Jamie Romanet, Watercolor paintings. Image courtesy of the artist.