Ashley Spencer

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashleysartdump/

Bio: Spencer received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Eastern Illinois University in 2023 and completed her Master of Fine Arts at California College of the Arts in 2025. Her work has been exhibited extensively, with recent shows at the ICA SF, SOMArts Cultural Center, Novack Gallery, and Playspace Gallery, among others. In 2025, she participated in the MFA Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition and received an Honorable Mention Thesis Award. She has been recognized with numerous accolades, including the Barclay Simpson Award, the Murphy Cadogan Award, and multiple scholarships throughout her academic career. Spencer lives and works in San Francisco, CA.

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.