I’m excited to be talking about what I’ve been doing the past few months under the Iowa Artist Fellowship this Friday from 12:30 to 1:30pm in E125 Visual Arts Building. The lovely Rachel Cox will also be presenting during this semester’s Faculty Research Presentations. Hope to see you there! ✨🪩
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Spring 2025 Faculty Research Presentations:
Ali Hval and Rachel Cox
Friday, April 11, 12:30-1:30pm, E125 VAB
Ali Hval is an Assistant Professor of Instruction in Painting and Drawing. She has received grants from the lowa Arts Council as well as the Center of Craft, Creativity, and Design. Ali’s work involves creating ceramic and fabric sculptures that echo pieces of oversized jewelry, shoes, and other fashion items. As a 2024-25 lowa Artist Fellow, Ali has begun expanding this visual language by merging her sculptural jewelry forms with everyday domestic objects. With fellowship support, she is also developing wearable garments that allow performers to activate these pieces, engaging with immersive, mural-painted environments that further blur the boundaries between body, object, and space.
Rachel Cox is an artist, educator, and feminist with a deep commitment to crafting image-based works of art which challenge cultural and social conventions pertaining to reproduction and care. Cox’s current project, Portrait of a Woman, has been recognized with numerous awards including an lowa Arts Project Grant, a Puffin Foundation Grant, as well as the 2024 Visionary Project Award through Film Photo & Kodak, and was selected for the 2025 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, hosted and exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC. Cox’s current research considers the implications of sharing works of art depicting nude femme bodies; a photographic tradition that is wrought with misogyny and objectification. In her presentation she will explain the significance of materials and craft as valuable tools when subverting established systems of image consumption. PLEASE NOTE: This lecture will contain images of nudity and hormone injections as well as references to miscarriage and abortion.