ART: "Our Dreams are a Form of Divination" | Ashley Page exhibition at PMAC

Featuring artist Ashley Page, Our Dreams are a Form of Divination is an ongoing inquiry in alternative ways to be in communion with the world around us. Composed of our thoughts, memories, and emotions and recycled into alternative scenarios, dreams untether our sense of reality and invite us to consider the possibilities. Through sculpture, printmaking and collage, Page explores various methods of divination and our innate connection to the natural world. Merging time, space and possibility, this exhibition is an invitation to stretch our imaginations while contemplating radical new meaning.

Says Ashley of her work: "My practice is a vessel to present diverse representation and visibility to the African American image, intellect, and spirit. Stitching together language, fiber, steel fabrication, collected ephemera, and collaborative social projects, I unearth the bodies we inhabit and explore the multiplicities within the self. As a maker, a curator, a woman of color, a community member, a little sister, and a daughter, I strive to create space for dialogue, representation, intergenerational exchange, and creative expression."

Ashley Page is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Portland, ME. Having obtained her BFA in Sculpture and a minor in Public Engagement from Maine College of Art & Design, her studio practice and curatorial projects are vehicles for storytelling, representation and intergenerational exchange. Merging textile, papermaking, and printmaking techniques with spatial sensibilities, her work is often a metaphor for the body, a vessel for spirit, or a container for ephemera. In 2022, she was awarded the Amelia Peabody Award for Sculpture by St. Botolph Club Foundation, and has taught workshops at Waterfall Arts, Peters Valley, the University of Maine Orono and more. Her curatorial and studio practice has been seen in the Portland Museum of Art, Hunterdon Art Museum, Congress Square Park, the Center for Afrofuturist Studies, The Abyssinian Meeting House, Cove Street Arts, and others. Page is presently the Studio and Programs Manager at Indigo Arts Alliance, where she works within the intersection of art and activism. Website: ashleypagestudio.com