Ashley Zangle was born in Babylon, New York, in 1985, and she lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She graduated from Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting in 2008. She has exhibited at Creative Nonfiction, Kunsthalle Galapagos, Brooklyn, NY; Total Lunar Eclipse, Crybaby Presents, Los Angeles, CA; Schleiermacher! 244 Gallery, Brooklyn, New York.
“The way I make things relates to natural processes or involves them directly; crystallization, water evaporating from a puddle, relying on the seasons. The difference is that I simulate these phenomenon in a controlled environment much like a lab. They’re akin to chemist-made minerals, those little ascending stacks of iridescent metal boxes, unnaturally blue crystals, or the fluorescent-dyed fish you see in pet stores. There’s something ominous to me about the beauty, something suspicious.”
Radka Salcmannova: What are you interested in regarding your work?
Ashley Zangle: I’ve always been a collector of rocks, shells, fossils, pieces of beach trash, and other small found objects. These collections have grown over time to became an important part of what I do in my studio; categorizing mascara marks, amassing hundreds of small sculptures, making groups of specimen-like paintings.
Radka Salcmannova: Who influenced or still influences your work? Whose work do you admire?
Ashley Zangle: I’ve always admired Agnes Martin. There’s something about imagining her as an old woman sitting in her studio day in day out making those slightly imperfect pencil lines on her canvas, or painting something the slightest wash of blue that really affects me. There are few similarities between what she did and what I’m doing, but I have a strong connection with her work.
Radka Salcmanova: What’s a recent exhibit you went to which stood out, or who would you recommend seeing?
Ashley Zangle: The Amazonian People section in the South American Wing of the Museum of Natural History.
* View more of Ashley Zangle’s work at www.ashleyzangle.com.
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