Anna Warfield: Soft Thorn
Opening Friday, August 7, 2020 | 4PM – 7PM

Soft Thorn addresses complexities in sexuality, language, and voice. The series is built of intangible yet highly relatable sentiments stemming from female experience in contemporary society. It’s intimate, personal, and political.

The mostly sculptural, often text- and always textile-based work is aspirationally frank. The materials and construction further complicate the picture. In employing “craft” to reclaim a visual vernacular typically coded as feminine, the works initially read like comfort objects, squishable and soft, before revealing themselves to be explicit, demanding, contorted, and self aware. The work’s light colors and soft textures mask the tone of text, disguising dominance with submission. The work broadcasts its intentions, summarizes memories, and demands an intimate exchange.

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Anna Warfield (b. 1995) is a fiber artist and Whitney Point native. An active member of the arts community for the last 7 years, Warfield predominantly works with themes surrounding sexuality. She is recent New York State Council on the Arts and New York Foundation for the Arts “Artist as Entrepreneur Bootcamp” graduate, and recipient of the collaborative National Endowments for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts and New York Foundation for the Arts “Keep New York State Creating Project Grants” for her sculptural work.

Warfield has exhibited solo with the Arts Council of the Southern Finger Lakes’ Evelyn Peeler Peacock Gallery, the Vestal Museum, and with Cornell University’s Experimental Gallery. Her recent group exhibitions include the “Southern Tier Biennial,” at Center Gallery Jamestown Community College; “Birthday Suit,” at Site:Brooklyn Gallery; and “Made in New York,” at Schweinfurth Art Center. In 2019, she was recognized as a featured artist in both ragazine.cc and Create! Magazine, received an Honorable mention for Create! Magazine’s “Women’s Issue,” and was honored by the Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce with a “HYPE Award” in the Arts.

Warfield graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Fine Art and a Bachelor of Science in Communication and was honored with the Charles Baskerville Painting Award for her thesis work. She currently works as Production Director for LUMA Arts Initiative and as the Gallery Assistant for Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts.