Arts and Entertainment

HUB Galleries present 'Strewn, Hither and Thither' inflatable sculpture exhibit

Claire Ashley’s inflatable sculpture “Loathsome Beauty Loaded Body” on display at the University of Buffalo Art Gallery. Ashley's work will be on view in the HUB Gallery on Penn State's University Park campus from Nov. 11 to Dec. 15. Credit: Provided by Clair AshleyAll Rights Reserved.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The HUB-Robeson Galleries will present "Strewn, Hither and Thither," a solo exhibition of inflatables by artist Claire Ashley, in Art Alley on the first floor of the HUB-Robeson Center.

The exhibition runs from Nov. 11 through Dec. 15. A free, informal celebration and live performance will take place from 4-6 p.m. on Nov. 10 to open the show. For the live performance, 12 students will inhabit Ashley's sculptures and perform her work "Hot Rocks," where the artist speculates on the future evolution of our species, whether on or off planet.

Ashley’s painted inflatable sculptures takes their cue in part from the features of a post-glacial, terminal moraine landscape, where boulders have been plucked and gouged out of the landscape and dumped as the melting glacier retreats, left to populate the landscape in random patterns. These kinetic boulders float and lumber throughout the gallery, irreverent and deliberately egalitarian. 

Ashley received her master of fine arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her bachelor of fine arts from Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, Scotland. Originally from Edinburgh, Scotland, Ashley is now lives in Chicago. Her work has been seen recently at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville, Florida; DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts; and at Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts

Dedicated to presenting the art of our time, the HUB-Robeson Galleries have presented 110 artworks by students in the 2018-19 school year, addressing questions with critical importance to contemporary life, including education, equity, sustainability, ethics and civics. The HUB-Robeson Galleries value the transformative power of art and artists. Led by and for students, the galleries activate the arts in order to address today’s complex questions and serve local and global communities. Advancing diversity, equity, access and inclusion in all of its forms, the galleries prioritize inclusion as an essential element and core strength of its public service mission. Free for all, the galleries work to expand access to the arts through cross-disciplinary and discovery-based processes.

The HUB-Robeson Galleries, a unit of Penn State Student Affairs, are open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The galleries welcome classroom visits and offer student-led tours. For more information on exhibitions or tours, call 814-865-2563 or visit the website.

Last Updated October 14, 2019