Ashley Spencer
Instagram: @https://www.instagram.com/ashleysartdump/
Bio: Ashley Spencer is a cross-disciplinary artist and writer who is deeply rooted in her identity as a Black creator. With a rich background in ceramics, sculpture, and mixed media, she imparts a nuanced exploration of the lived Black experience through her work. Over fifteen years, Ashley has developed a distinctive approach to her work, blending various mediums and genres to address complex themes like haunting and inheritance. Her pieces often serve as a conduit for discussing generational grief, creating a dialogue that bleeds across time and material history.
A graduate of the California College of the Arts, Ashley earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in 2025. Her academic journey is ongoing as she pursues an additional degree in writing, further exploring her narrative capabilities.
Statement: Ashley Spencer (San Francisco, CA) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work reflects her worldly perspective as a mixed-race queer creator. With ten years of experience in ceramics, sculpture, and mixed media, her art delves into complex themes like the Black experience, hauntology, and women’s bodily autonomy. She addresses generational grief through her work, which often uses a blend of various mediums to explore time and material history.
Ashley initiates thinking about how the work is as much about the process as the final product, inviting viewers to engage with both contemporary issues and historical narratives. The materials she uses become tools for storytelling, rituals, and manifestations of folklore, weaving narratives that speak of heritage, beliefs, and the unseen. The act of arranging and rearranging such materials can also be seen as a dialogue with spirits and tales that hover just at the edge of perception. Every twist of a twig or coil of hair echoes with the voices of ancestors, myths, and legends, enriching the present with their whispers. Through them, she engages with a legacy that is living and breathing, inviting us to explore the enchanted and the unknown.
