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 from the University of Iowa in Painting and Drawing with honors, and a BFA in Painting from the University of Alabama with honors.

Ali has received grants from the Iowa Arts Council, as well as the Windgate Fellowship from the Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design in Asheville, North Carolina. Most recently, she is a recipient of the 2024–2025 Iowa Artist Fellowship. She was a former Stuart Artist-in-Residence at South Dakota State University and a resident at the Chautauqua School of Art. She has exhibited her work across the country, including at Ceysson & Bénétière in New York City and at NCECA. Her work has been featured in New York Jewelry Week, Create! Magazine, and The New Yorker.


Artist Statement

Growing up in the southern US, I quickly came to understand the expectations of what it meant to “properly” be a woman. Today, my work challenges and redefines those notions, using femininity as a tool to reveal gender disparities and the relentless scrutiny and politicization of the female body. From afar, my work sparkles and seduces with frilly, glittering surfaces. Up close, it reveals layers of political commentary, feminist critique, and the quieter, everyday stories of being a woman.

Rather than rejecting femme aesthetics or shying away from female sexuality, my pieces boldly embrace and amplify them, infusing awkwardness, humor, and theatricality into the conversation. Working primarily in ceramics and fabric, I create sculptures that echo oversized jewelry, shoes, and other fashion and domestic artifacts. These pieces are flirtatious and intentionally attention-seeking—crafted to capture viewers with their playful materials while anchoring deeper narratives about identity and empowerment. Rhinestones, pom-pom hair ties, and nail polish flood their surfaces.

These exaggerated, larger-than-life sculptures serve as self-portraits, reflecting both my own experiences and broader stories of womanhood. Viewers can imagine themselves adorned in these monumental pieces, with their impractical weight and scale, and consider the physical and symbolic burdens often imposed on women. Each work speaks in its own voice—excessive, unabashedly hyper-feminine, and most importantly, pink—illuminating the power and complexity embedded in femininity.


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.