Exhibit A: Tiffany Ownbey

Tiffany Ownbey’s sculptures feel alive. While whimsical and surreal in appearance, each piece is imbued with genuine emotion, ranging from bliss to anger, hopelessness to happiness. Many of her creatures seem to simultaneously exude contradictory characteristics—playful and menacing, desperate and satisfied, silly and serious, contemplative and spontaneous, disconcerting and lovely—that make them all the more lifelike. Gather enough of them together, and the collection suggests what a casting call for a phantasmagorical movie created by a mystical Burton-Gaiman-Dali collaboration might look like: teacup army, zippered horses, a timely woman, clown, keeper and eater, baby maker and American daughter, horse dog with rider, righteous bunnyman, mobile home, and a gang of others ready to play their roles in some sublimely bizarre narrative.

The North Carolina-based artist studied ceramics and printmaking at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Western Carolina University and Penland School of Crafts because papier-mâché—her first love—was not offered. Thankfully for us, her passion for papier-mâché, which began as a young child making piggy banks for gifts, never subsided, intensifying instead. Ownbey employs traditional papier-mâché techniques but uses vintage sewing patterns (rather than newspapers), books and found objects; she layers colored papers using a collage approach to add vibrant hues to her figures. Despite the ubiquity of recycled art these days, Ownbey manages to avoid stale and clichéd uses of found objects, implementing and upcycling a variety of otherwise discarded items—from old toys and various doll parts to vintage suitcases, clocks, phones, and all kinds of other flea market finds—in fresh and subtle ways.

Ownbey, who has exhibited her work at art festivals and galleries throughout the United States and as far as Japan, has transformed common craft into high art without sacrificing its approachability or humor. While each of her creations could be considered a signature piece, two seem especially suited to represent her distinct style and the broad scope of emotions and experiences that inform and inspire her work. First, “Due to Fall” (at left)—inspired by a poem by the inimitable Dorothy Parker titled “Symptom Recital” and created during a particularly hopeful period in the artist’s love life—is part of a series of pieces that incorporates vintage cases (from violin cases to suitcases) as framing devices. “Serial Lover” (see below), which Ownbey completed in May after two months of allowing the idea to evolve and working to get certain elements just right, epitomizes quintessential Ownbey: dark, mysterious, wry and powerful. Like great poetry, her work expresses poignant messages and intense statements while maintaining a healthy dose of ambiguity, allowing us to form our own interpretations and create our own connections.