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011. Curious Things: A Talk with Ashlynn Browning

On this episode, we sit down and speak with painter, Ashlynn Browning. Browning’s work contains a hybrid of geometric and organic forms created through an intuitive painting process.

Browning earned BA degrees in Studio Art and English from Meredith College in 2000 and her MFA in painting and printmaking from the University of NC at Greensboro in 2002. She has received grants and residency fellowships from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, United Arts Council, Vermont Studio Center, and Virginia Center for Creative Arts. Select exhibitions include the Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC, Whitespace Gallery, Atlanta, GA, CUE Foundation, NY, Carroll Square Gallery, Washington, DC, and upcoming curatorial project for the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, NC.

Browning’s work was featured in the 2009 and 2015 Southern Edition of New American Paintings, and has been reviewed by Burnaway, The Washington Post, Washington City Paper, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She is represented by if ART Gallery, Columbia, SC, Whitespace, Atlanta, GA, Hodges Taylor, Charlotte, NC and IdeelArt, London, UK.

The forms in her paintings often function as stand-ins for figures, each one exhibiting its own personality and implied psychological narrative. Some of the forms are hunched over, vulnerable, and contemplative. Others are headstrong and daring, their postures barely contained within the panel’s parameters.

Experimenting with the idea of opposing forces is an important part of her work. Bold color is set against muted, geometric forms mix with organic, and pattern and texture play off of smooth color fields. These are variables that are layer in multiple stages until a resonant image is formed.

The many layers in the paintings speak not only to the history of their creation, but also to the concealed parts of ourselves that we hold back. Windows into under layers reveal hidden depths and untold stories.