Artist Profile
Hanna Washburn
Hanna Washburn is an artist and curator based in the Hudson Valley. Washburn has exhibited widely, presenting projects at venues including SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University, and the Munson Williams Proctor Art Institute, among others. Washburn’s work has been featured in publications including the New York Times, Hyperallergic, and Queens Chronicle. Washburn has been artist in residence at Monson Arts, Vermont Studio Center, the Textile Arts Center, and the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Colony.
Washburn holds a BA in Fine Art and English from Kenyon College in Gambier, OH, and an MFA in Fine Art from the School of Visual Arts in New York, NY.
Available Works
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SOLO AND TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2022 Borrowed Bones, Beacon Artist Union, Beacon, NY (solo)
2020 Homebody, The James Library and Center for the Arts, Norwell, MA (solo)
2018 Hanna Washburn + Pierre Chaumont, Munson Williams Proctor Art Institute, Utica, NY (2 person)
2018 Affordable Art Fair Young Talent: Hanna Washburn, Metropolitan Pavilion, New York, NY (solo)
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 Green House, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, New York, NY
2022 NADA New York, New Art Dealers Alliance, New York, NY
2022 Museum Workers Create, King Manor Museum, Queens, NY
2022 Mohawk Hudson Regional Invitational, Albany Center Gallery, Albany, NY
2022 Life as Clouds, String Room Gallery, Wells College, Aurora, NY
2021 The Haunted Mill, Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY
2021 Blessed Bodies, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, New York, NY
2021 The Fridge Show, Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY
2021 Women’s Work: New Takes on Textile Art, Elm Street Arts - Reeves House, Atlanta, GA
2021 Sunrise Sunset, Albany International Airport Gallery, Albany, NY
2021 The Vision of Care, Woodstock Artists Association & Museum, Woodstock, NY
2020 Let the Good Times Roll, ArtPort Kingston, Kingston, NY
2020 Infinite Uncertainty, Opalka Gallery, Russell Sage College, Albany, NY
2020 The Feminine Agenda, WomensWork.Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY
2020 Everything is Different Now, Stay Home Gallery, Paris, TN
2020 Settle In, HERE Arts, New York, NY
2019 Inalienable, Chashama at 21 Greenwich Avenue, New York, NY
2019 The Chair Show, ArtsWestchester, White Plains, NY
2019 Every Woman Biennial, La MaMa Galleria, New York, NY
2019 Bloom, Millersville University, Millersville, PA
2018 Ladies of Change, Chinatown Soup, New York, NY
2018 Object Lessons, Pfizer Building, Brooklyn, NY
2018 Representing Feminism(s), Lamont Gallery, Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH
2018 Textile Landscapes, Sulfur Studios, Savannah, GA
2017 Vital Constitutions, Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University, Houston, TX
2016 Transformations, Sotheby's Institute of Art, New York, NY
AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES
2021 Albany Institute of History & Art Board of Trustees Award, Albany, NY
2020 Residency at Monson Arts, Monson, ME
2019 United Breast Cancer Foundation x Chashama Artist Grant, New York, NY
2019 Residency at the Society of Arts + Crafts, Boston, MA
2019 Residency at Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
2018 Residency at Art Farm, Marquette, NE
2018 Work in Progress Residency at Textile Arts Center, New York, NY
2018 Residency at Byrdcliffe Colony, Woodstock, NY
SELECTED PRESS
2022 Queens Chronicle, The Museum is the Muse, the Curator is the Artist
2021 Hyperallergic, The Wonderfully Messy Mix of Art and Craft at Spring Break
2021 The Highlands Current, Inside the Box: Collective Curates Fridge-Inspired Show
2021 The Coastal Post, Remote Studio Visit: Hanna Washburn
2020 Brooklyn Art Library, Beyond the Page: Hanna Washburn
2018 Visual Arts Journal, Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose
2018 The New York Times, 23 Exhibitions to View in NYC
EDUCATION
2018 School of Visual Arts, New York, NY • Master of Fine Arts in Fine Arts
2014 Kenyon College, Gambier, OH • Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art and English, Magna Cum Laude
Artist Statement
My work is constructed from recycled textiles, clothing, household items, and other materials that have former utilities and associations. I sew by hand and work intuitively, allowing the compounded forms to grow organically into complex aggregates of color, pattern, and texture. I know my materials from their previous lives and functions, and this memory and intimacy dictates my visual language.
The resulting sculptures look and behave like bodies or body parts: they droop, gesture, and hold space. These mismatched, anthropomorphic figures are at once modest, maternal, and seductive, creating a patchwork of associations and expectations of the feminine form. The strange or unsettling forms are mediated by their apparent sweetness, the cheerful patterned surfaces acting as a kind of camouflage. The undulating silhouettes indicate they are growing and changing: adding layers, extending into space, making room for themselves.
Headshot Credit: Ally Schmaling