them/me /
Crista Ann Ames
Aja Mujinga Sherrard

I am a sculptor who works primarily in ceramics and textiles. I find that the integration of both permanent and impermanent materials conveys my interest in approaches to memory, loss and transformation.  Just as the act of remembering transforms an experience into something different, time degrades some elements and leaves others to endure.

Through the layering of mythology, iconography and personal narrative, my work explores how our own animal nature relates to the ways we establish and sustain personal relationships.  I draw on my own experiences to explore pastoral life, animal husbandry, women’s craft and fertility.

In bridging the gap between myth and experience, I utilize my artistic practice to create altogether new stories that tell contemporary tales of trauma, joy and womanhood.

Aja Mujinga Sherrard is a conceptual artist whose work explores questions of race, gender, loss, and self. In investigating the implied coherence of structures of identity, her work asks: How does one become oneself amid social constructions, especially when these constructions are alienating or violent? What is lost, and what is still to gain?

Sherrard grew up in a multiracial and multicultural family between Belgium, Martinique, and the United states. She studied ethnic studies and literature at Sarah Lawrence College in New York and holds an M.F.A. in Fine Art and an M.A. in Art History from the University of Montana.

She has exhibited work at the UC Gallery, the Gallery of Visual Arts, FrontierSpace Gallery in Missoula, MT and the Jodee Harris Gallery in Greensburg, PA. She has spoken at international conferences such as CAA and Thinking Its Presence: Conference on Race and Poetics. She received the multicultural fellowship from NSECA in 2017 and was awarded an artist in residence from SFAI’s Equal Justice Residency in August 2018.

She is currently an Assistant Professor at University of Montana Western, where she teaches Art and Art History.

Residency/Fellowship

Equal Justice 2017/2018

Website

cristaannames.com
aja-mujinga-sherrard.com

Location

Missoula, MT USA