Ali Hval

Ali Hval (she/her) (b. 1993, Sacramento, CA) is a visual artist currently living and working in Iowa City, Iowa. She is currently a Lecturer in Painting and Drawing at the University of Iowa. She earned her MFA in Painting and Drawing with honors from the University of Iowa and her BFA in Painting with honors from the University of Alabama. Her work merges ceramics, fabric, installation, and painting. The forms and materials she uses reflect her interest in adornment and the relentless critique and politicization of the body.
Ali has received grants from the Iowa Arts Council as well as the nationally competitive Windgate Fellowship by the Center of Craft, Creativity, and Design in Asheville, North Carolina. She was the 2022 Stuart Artist-in-Residence at South Dakota State University and was a 2020 resident at the Chautauqua School of Art. She has exhibited her work across the country, including at Ceysson y Bénétière in New York City, Site: Brooklyn, and Atlantic Gallery in New York, and South Bay Contemporary in Los Angeles. She has been mentioned in New York Jewelry Week, CultBytes, and The New Yorker.

Artist Statement

Growing up in the southern US, I quickly learned there was a certain expectation of how to “properly” be a woman. Now, I challenge what that looks like, using performed femininity as a tool to reveal not only gender disparities but also to illuminate the relentless critique and politicization of the female body. Instead of hiding or denying femme aesthetics and female sexuality, my pieces embrace, highlight, and empower them while acknowledging all the awkwardness, humor, and theatricality they entail.

My work is a balancing act between sensual forms and playful materials. By augmenting erotic, sensual armatures with glistening rhinestones, feathery pom-poms, and candy-colored fabrics, I assign new meanings and connotations to the forms. Using primarily ceramics and fabric, I create sculptures that evoke pieces of oversized jewelry, shoes, and other fashion and domestic items. I begin a piece by sculpting a high-fired ceramic component, painting it, and carefully studding the surface one by one with tiny rhinestones. From here, I add textile elements as well as beauty supply materials like hair scrunchies and nail polish.

The resulting pieces are flirtatious, attention-seeking, and deceptively superficial. Toying with their own actualities and potential, they can speak—glittery and powerful—to politics in their own voice: excessive, unabashedly hyper-feminine, and most importantly, pink.


www.alihval.com

What is your first memory of creating?
Early in elementary school, I remember creating what was called a “Flat Stanley.” A Flat Stanley is a cut-out paper doll of sorts that you would decorate and send through the mail. The receiver would take photos of themselves with the Flat Stanley at scenic locations near them, then send the images and Flat Stanley back to the original creator. Thus, Flat Stanley’s journey was chronicled in photographs. I went to town drawing a pearl necklace, blingy gemstone earrings, and a frilly outfit on mine before sending it off to one of my relatives.

What is your relationship to your medium? What draws you to it?
Ceramics strike a balance between heft and delicacy; the material itself is easily shattered, but strong enough to hold form. This feels symbolic and human, bringing another dimension to my sculptural ceramic works. The materials I combine with ceramics are ones I use and love in my everyday life. The work is proliferated with beauty supplies materials like fuzzy pom-pom hair ties, glistening rhinestones, shiny nail polish, and shimmering fabrics. My work feels like picking out an outfit in the morning, a play of textures and shine, and feels close to my usual morning routine in this regard.

What is the main thing you hope your audience takes away from your art?
While I believe anyone can enjoy my art, the audience I specifically think about challenging is women themselves. These could be the women who don’t see themselves as feminists, the women who don’t think femme women can be feminists, or the women who don’t see supporting other women as a necessity.
I think many are off-put by the word “feminist” even though they enjoy the benefits of the feminist movement, like equal opportunities for education and access to birth control. The reason women have many of the rights they do is a direct result of the actions of feminism. It is backward for anyone to say feminism isn’t necessary anymore or that it has done its job when many of the rights women once held are now breaking away.

That being said, I hope people see my work not only as a political statement but also as acceptance for how to be whatever kind of person you want to be. But perhaps that is a political statement in itself.

Tell us about a challenge you overcame last year.
I overcame this idea that making work that has representative elements in it can only be interpreted one way. This seems like a pretty easy thing to come to terms with but has been a struggle for me. Two years ago, my work was more abstract. The forms I used were a stretch from their real-life counterparts. Now, my work contains more recognizable objects within them, namely on my charm bracelet pieces where I replicate something like a deviled egg, matchstick, or even a rabbit vibrator.
Regardless of how recognizable these individual elements are, the work still feels abstract enough to be interpreted in various ways due to their multiple meanings. For example, an eggplant is an edible nightshade vegetable, but in cartoon emoji form, it becomes more phallic and sexual. With the current political climate, some of the objects I use, such as birth control devices and hangers, are flooded with more meaning than ever.

What is your main goal or resolution this year in terms of your art practice?
Recently, I have been focused on making larger installation pieces that take months to complete. When I’m focused on such a large project, other fleeting ideas tend to dwindle. This year, I want to focus on those punchy, smaller pieces. Sometimes, slow momentum in a piece is great – but I want to sprinkle in some faster “sketches” as well to get other ideas out and try new moves. I also want to continue my resolution from last year, which is to add in a material I haven’t used before to each piece I create.