IN CONVERSATION: Leigh Suggs + Asa Jackson
This series of exhibitions is about starting a conversation – between two artists, and with the viewer. We invited an art ist partner to ask another artist that inspires them to exhibit their work together. In Conversation captures the exchange between two practicing artists that illuminates the parallels they recognize in their work and beyond.
As artists working with paper and fiber, respectively, Leigh Suggs and Asa Jackson share a kinship in process and labor, as well as endurance and commitment. Their deliberate use of the line and distortion of the grid creates tactile works that feel grounded and familiar.
Leigh and Asa created work for this show that focuses on the cycle of loss and birth. While each artist is on the oppo site side of this cycle in their personal lives, they find common ground in discussing and exploring spirituality and all the ways one finds balance in this life.
Akin to their interlaced approach to material and composition, all stories are connected; new ones woven from the threads of old.
ASA JACKSON, Olokun, 2022, mud cloth, fleece, polyester, nylon, cotton, thread, 26 x 26 inches framed, 3200 framed. Front cover, left. LEIGH SUGGS, Untitled (large yellow squares), 2022, collage on handmade paper, 42.5 x 30.5 inches framed. 5800 framed. Front cover, right.
Installation photos by Reuben Bloom. For inquiries, email: info@hodgestaylor.com.
LEIGH SUGGS
Round and Round (VI), 2020 Handcut, acrylic on Yupo paper x 36 inches framed
5800 framed
LEIGH SUGGS
Untitled (navy & yellow squares), 2022
Collage on handmade paper x 18.5 inches framed
2750 framed
"My work oscillates between concealing and conceding, veiling and revealing. Embedded in the visual language of craft yet transcending the media-specific, my forms escape fixity while transfixing. But I invite you to remain active and look to the human forces behind the seemingly machine-made—behind the nature of the images themselves. Patterns and grids mutate into radial webs as forms yield to the tension between positive and negative space. Tension itself replaces form as the guiding principle of my works in paper: the familiarity of the grid gives structure to our experience while the hand-cut “warps” and “wefts” nod to the painstaking, processual work of “pink collar” art and labor. I reassert the modernist grid’s ambiguity through its making, remaking, and unmaking; what can we see when we look beyond the grid? The work emerges as timely meditations on concentration and the risks of desensitization, ultimately asking the viewer to consider their own relationship to form."
LEIGH SUGGS
ASA JACKSON
Holy of Holies, 2022
Mud cloth, tumeric, thread 21.5 x 21.5 inches framed 2800 framed LEIGH SUGGS Blue Squares, 2021
Collage on handmade paper 35 x 46.5 inches framed 8400 framed
ASA JACKSON
Darkness Upon the Face of the Deep, 2020 Canvas, cotton, mud cloth, leather, paper, oil paint, acrylic paint, denim, fleece, natural and synthetic hair, blacksoap, wax, thread 100 x 117 inches
Inquire for pricing
And the earth was formless, void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters... and it was good
"This work of art is inspired by the first chapter of The Old Testament. It is a depiction of the formless void, the potential reality found in darkness. The darkness that represents our sleep state, the deep crevices of the earth, our subconscious minds, the womb and the bowels of earth, and outer space. It is in this darkness that man is formed, thoughts are generated, seeds go into gestation, diamonds and gold are pressurized and produced, and stars are born. The work consists of hair, oils, charcoal, dirt, and black soap laid into sewn textiles, a metaphor for forming physicality out of raw material."
ASA JACKSON
ASA JACKSON
Aether, 2022
Mud cloth, canvas, cotton, faux leather, wool, cotton, nylon, acrylic paint, thread 23 x 23 inches framed
2800 framed
LEIGH SUGGS
The Background III, 2017 Collaged cyanotype 48 x 36 inches framed 8750 framed
ASA JACKSON
As Above So Below (Day #7), 2022 cloth, fleece, polyester, jeans, silk screen, cotton, thread x 53 inches
"At the top third of the piece, the dark blue and black is representative of the cosmos or mazeroth. This meets a violet band that represents the stratosphere, the barrier between the heavens and the earth. The stratosphere meets the cloudy sky made of dyed mud cloth which leads down into the realm of flora and fauna and the animal kingdom. This interplay of man, plants, and animals sits upon a foundation of sod, represented by brown mudcloth and other earth-tone textiles.This work is a hermetic axiom that speaks to the relationship between everything and the cosmos."
ASA JACKSON
LEIGH SUGGS
Untitled, 2022
Handcut, acrylic on Yupo paper, thread 46 x 37 inches
7500 ASA JACKSON
Hydrogen Dioxide (Precipitation), 2022 Mud cloth, cotton, silk screen, thread
18.5 x 19.5 inches framed
2400 framed
"Mineral Life is a commentary on the falsehood of inanimacy, the idea that objects are without life. Everything in our realm is composed of elements that are made up of living and vibrating atoms. When broken down to simplest form, everything is alive. It's a nod to the existence of life everywhere, in everything."
ASA JACKSON
ASA JACKSON Mineral Life, 2022
Mud cloth, polyester and cotton blanket, deconstructed jeans, dyed canvas, fleece, thread 41 x 36 inches 8000
LEIGH SUGGS Pavers, 2022
Collage on handmade paper 30.5 x 24.5 inches framed 3250 framed
LEIGH SUGGS
Stepping into the Same River Twice, 2022 Handcut, acrylic on Yupo paper
16.5 x 20.5 inches framed
1800 framed
LEIGH SUGGS
Adrift, 2022 Handcut, acrylic on Yupo paper 44.5 x 45 inches
7500
ASA JACKSON
The 6 Sided Box of CHEM, 2022 Wool, mud cloth, polyester, plastic and metal zipper, thread 20.5 x 20.5 inches framed 2800 framed
LEIGH SUGGS
Golden Hour, 2022
Handcut, acrylic on Yupo paper
14.5 x 14.5 inches framed 1700 framed
ARTIST BIOS
LEIGH SUGGS
Lives and works in Richmond, VA (b. 1981, American)
Leigh Suggs channels her fascination with the mystery and psychology of sight through cut paper works and largescale installations. She obscures normal perception, manipulating her materials as if optical illusions. Born in Boone, North Carolina, she received her BFA from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 2003 and her MFA from the Virginia Commonwealth University in 2015. She has exhibited her work extensively, including exhibitions at The Visual Arts Center in Richmond, VA, Penland Gallery, Minnesota State University, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Racine Art Museum, Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh, NC, and the Weatherspoon Museum in Greensboro, NC. Suggs has been awarded several grants and honors, including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship Award, the North Carolina Fellowship Award and two City of Richmond CultureWorks Grants. Her work is a part of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and Weatherspoon Museum collections and corporate collections, including the Federal Reserve Bank, Capital One, Markel Corporation, Suntrust Bank and Fidelity Investments.
ASA JACKSON Lives and works in Hampton Roads, VA (b. 1988, American)
Asa Jackson is a visual artist, curator, and director. As a multidisciplinary artist, Jackson’s work explores the cross section of textile from various countries, peoples, time periods, and personal histories. His works are often anthropo logical studies, representing the lives of myriad people, their collective and individual stories. By cutting and sewing fabrics together, Jackson metaphorically mixes cultures, time periods, people and places into unified works of art. After graduating from Hampton Roads Academy, where he developed a passion for painting and art making, Jackson studied sociology at Boston University. He then moved to New York in 2010, where he was featured in several exhibi tions, including a career-defining solo exhibition at the Samuel Owen Gallery in Greenwich, CT. Jackson then opened 670 Gallery in Virginia, leading the gallery as its director from 2014-2017. He has since been featured in numerous exhibitions, including more recently at 1708 Gallery in Richmond, VA and The Arlington Arts Center in Arlington, VA. His work is a part of various prominent collections including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,the Capital One Corporate Collection, and the Hascoe Family Collection. Jackson is the founder and director of The Contemporary Arts Network LLC and CAN Foundation, a not-for-profit arts organization in Newport News, VA, with a focus on artist development, arts education, and public projects. He currently serves on the boards of the Virginia Commission for the Arts and Mid-Atlantic Arts.
For inquiries, contact: info@hodgestaylor.com
HODGES TAYLOR 1414 S Tryon St, Ste 130 Charlotte, NC 28213
