M*A*S*H Alexis Mabry and Steef Crombach May 4th - 25th, 2019
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 4th, 7-11pm Open Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 12-6pm
Co-Lab Projects presents M*A*S*H, featuring the collaborative work of Alexis Mabry and Steef Crombach. Alexis and Steef have a strong sensibility towards the “do it yourself” practice of traditional women’s crafts and techniques. Their unique approach towards soft sculpture, found fabric, quilt and tapestry elements, unscrews the existing perception of these traditionally “crafty” media. Through mimesis the work questions themes of gender positioning, colloquialisms, and visual expression of popular culture. The MASH between Steef’s delicate and methodical process and Alexis’s organized chaos, bring their kindred works into new engrossing dimensions.
Alexis E. Mabry (b. 1985) grew up in up in Dallas, Texas. Mabry moved back to Texas after studying at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia (2011) and Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond (2013). She is a 2019 candidate for her B.F.A from Texas State University this year. Alexis explores social stereotypes in identity through observation, anecdote, and personal introspection. Finding the idea of a person more compelling when it lives in the popular imagination, with a tenuous connection to lived reality. Her work pulls from both personal experiences here and those imagined identities. Being a female BMX rider, she explores feminine roles in male-dominated activities. The work draws from the languages of painting, soft sculpture, and craft. Mabry has shown in solo and group shows regionally throughout in Texas, Richmond, California, and Kentucky.
Steef Crombach (b. 1992) was raised in Maastricht in the South of the Netherlands. She lives and works in Austin as an artist, curator, and teacher at The Contemporary Art School at Laguna Gloria. Crombach earned her B.F.A from the Royal Academy of the Arts in The Hague in 2014. Crombach has a very speculative approach to the world and her direct environment, it’s patterns, objects, colloquialisms, and concrete manifestations. She seeks out and unscrews aspects of our present time that will eventually become part of our collective memory. She is currently investigating the universal interpretation of the themes in her work by changing the environment, and the culture, she and her work belong to. She has been visiting Austin for extended periods of time to curate, exhibit, and research since 2014 and has recently relocated to Austin permanently. In 2017, Crombach organized and curated the nine-artist exhibition Expedition Batikback at Co-Lab Projects. Her work Piet is on exhibition at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam and she is a recipient of the Emerging Artist grant from Mondriaan Fund.
