* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Alea Hurst began her journey into drawing and painting in high school. She produces two-dimensional works, particularly drawings and paintings, which range from traditional to experimental and mixed media approaches. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting and Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Georgia in Athens in 2013. She is currently working towards her Master of Fine Arts in Painting at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Her work has been exhibited various places including the University of Georgia, Beep Beep Gallery, and Mason Murer Fine Art’s Fresh Blood. Her work also has been featured in multiple publications and purchased by the State Botanical Garden of Georgia. Most recently one of her pieces is featured in the series 4 bottle labels for Collective Arts Brewing in Ontario, Canada. Her current work focuses on the roles of masks and reversing those roles to comment on the evolution of society.
Alea explains her work by saying, “Foremost in my work, I am experimenting with painting in a new way by prepping and priming fabric for oil painting. I am attracted to pattern in my work and picking the fabric specifically for each painting becomes part of my creative process. The fabric also plays another key role; I let the fabric show through in unexpected areas. Sometimes it is left alone, others it has been glazed over to form the clothes themselves. This creates an illusion often making it difficult to tell what is actually painted and what is not.”
