Past Exhibitions

Main Gallery

FAMILY PORTRAIT
​Whitney Jade Fairhurst
August 16 - September 23, 2018

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Fairhurst began experimenting with soft sculpture after relocating to North Carolina from San Francisco in 2016.  Her resulting handmade dolls are disquietly huggable and subvert one's expectations, sometimes with hilarious results.  The creatures — relatable, but not quite human — invite the viewer to interact; with intricate details at every vantage point, and some with magnetic appendages that can be rearranged. 

The artist's watercolor and pencil drawings are delicate renderings of a more familiar sort, "My watercolor drawings are set up as portraits to represent family and individual identity," says Whitney, "with an occasional feline friend included."  At first view the artist's characters are a bit unsettling, but somehow they remain sympathetic creatures. 

With her odd, but inviting dolls and awkwardly beautiful family portraits, the artist intends to "give a feeling of inclusion, while also invoking some discomfort. It's the space in-between that I'm interested in exploring."
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ABOUT THE ARTIST
Whitney Jade Fairhurst was born in Lincoln, England in 1989 and moved to Dallas, Texas about ten years later. She attended the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, California, and graduated in 2012. She started experimenting with strange characters and creatures, and in 2014 opened her Etsy store, Odd Dolls Shoppe. From there, ideas for different dolls developed, and her unusual watercolor drawings followed. 
Whitney has shown in a few group exhibitions throughout the United States, with this exhibition at CANVAS ArtSpace being her first solo show.  She currently lives in Hendersonville and works at Woolworth Walk art gallery in Asheville, NC.