Ann Moody

My practice stretches across many disciplines: presently it vacillates between drawing, painting, and fiber art. Much of my fiber work begins with a collage of textiles and objects loaded with personal and cultural signification; these assemblages fuse improvisational quilting, apparel techniques and handicrafts that, when finished, are either arranged in immersive installations or reconstructed as abstract, text-derived, gestural paintings. Thrift stores, family relics, studio fragments and fabric donations from friends are my primary material sources, leading to reflections on consumption, waste, memory, identity, value and kinship. Making things is a balm- a way to sublimate fear, reclaim agency and prioritize joy. In the forgiving nature of fabric, I find safety. I center the past in my work and my life due to an inability to let go- through drawing there is a discovery, recovery and rearranging of these accumulated meanings and memories. Eager to explore, I eulogize labor and embrace failure only to confront the anxiety surrounding it. This personal investment in art-as-release is couched in a more broad understanding of the liberatory, community-building potential of making. Whether working on paper, canvas or fabric, my work probes and magnifies parallels between particular objects, concepts, and modalities: art/craft, comics/quilts, quilts/paintings, embroidery/drawing, high/low, body/pillow, body/textile, textual/visual, love/labor. Identification of these parallels is not in reverence of categorization but rather in opposition- an effort to collapse the distinctions that mark difference. Intra- and interpersonal recuperation can be found through the negation of binary thought and art is but one tool in this project.

Ann Moody (b.1989) completed her BFA with a concentration in printmaking in 2012 from the University at Montevallo and received her MFA in 2017 from the University at Buffalo. Currently based in Alabama, Moody’s practice combines fine art and craft techniques with found objects and personal effects to explore gender, memory, identity, consumption, and waste. Her most recent solo show at Argus Gallery, curated by Dana Tyrrell, was funded by the Buffalo Institute of Contemporary Art (BICA) microgrant. Moody has shown nationally, most notably at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Collar Works, The Overlook Place, and Little Berlin. Moody is a recent recipient of the Albright-Knox Artist Relief Grant and is currently participating in Alonzo Pantoja’s Fiber + Materials Practice Seminar.

Space One Eleven Involvement: CCA Teaching Artist Summer 2021