ASHLEY GRINGHUIS
Ashley Gringhuis is an emerging Canadian artist currently based in Barrie, Ontario. She graduated from Queen's University with a BFAH and received the Medal in Visual Art and the Andre Bieler Prize in her final year of study. While working primarily with oil paint, she often branches out into other mediums to express themes related to the complexities of life and relationships. She focuses on illustrating the anxieties that come with living in a fast-paced world of interacting individuals and conflicting desires, creating scenes that create an uneasiness in the viewer that the artist often feels while navigating life. Ashley has exhibited at the Union Gallery in Kingston, Ontario and Hibernation Arts Gallery in Orillia, Ontario. She has also been featured on the CanArt Magazine website in the TMAC2022 Art Gallery, and in the March 2024 issue of Suboart Magazine.
Artist Statement
The concept of the self, how it is simultaneously contained while also interacting with others, inspires my thinking and greatly informs my work. By working with self-portraiture, floral symbolism, and motifs of textiles and thread, I illustrate the anxieties related to living in a world full of people trying to navigate and connect with one another. My personal feeling of confusion and worry with creating and maintaining relationships reflects the way many people with social anxiety feel and my paintings capture this feeling and project it onto the viewer. In how our paths overlap, intersect, grow alongside, weave together, and often become tangled, I examine my position in the world and how our relationships with others can leave a lasting impact on it.