The Small of Her Lower Back – Aubrey Theobald

March 8-16, 2019 

Please join us for the opening reception on
Friday, March 8th, 2019 from 7-10 pm.
Additional gallery hours include Saturday March 9th and Saturday March 16th 12-5pm and by appointment. Email us at anytimedept@gmail.com to schedule.

In the third installment of our ongoing series of short-run exhibitions which are extended to artists who have recently completed BFA and MFA programs, Anytime Dept. is pleased to present The Small of Her Lower Back, a solo exhibition by Aubrey Theobald.

The Small of Her Lower Back explores how grieving, monument, and death are found through & within commonplace hardscape materials. By working through her own historical infatuation with grittiness and material labor, this exhibition offers up a conversation around how to make space for grief in everyday occurrences. Through the poetic materiality behind the clothes worn and habits projected by her late grandmother, Rita Gay, prior to her passing, combined with the artificial and sterile use of concrete/rebar/and synthetic fabric, Theobald demonstrates ways in which the viewer can connect with and find solace in these unconventionally empathetic materials.

From the re-sculpting and fabricating of industry-specific linen bags to the exploration of the brick as hand-held funerary object, this work reaches desperately to find connection and healing through repetitive habits. The resultant works centralize death in a studio practice that calls attention to how a relationship with a space and material can be reframed through close examination.

Aubrey Theobald (b.1996) is an installation artist currently practicing in Cincinnati, OH. Theobald received her Bachelors of Fine Arts from the University of Cincinnati (2018). Her persistent inquiry toward the function of sculpture has manifested in installations and exhibitions, both domestic and international, that most recently point to site-specificity, historical labor practices, and Locational Empathy. Notably, Aubrey has recently been selected as an International Fulbright Fellowship Semi-Finalist.