๐๐๐ข๐๐ก๐๐๐ง ๐ฌ๐๐ฉ๐๐ค๐ช๐ฉ ๐ ๐ฃ๐๐ข๐, a solo exhibition by Allison Spence @_allisonspence , is currently on view at Causeway through May 30. Please email [email protected] to schedule a viewing.
Allison Spenceโs practice centers on the figure of the monster and how it is used as a foil to enforce myths of a baseline, normative โhuman.โ She draws upon intersecting histories of science, art, and horror to express the limits placed on bodies through rigid classification. Celebrating the hybrid, the mutant, and the mishmash, she makes work thatโs informed by painting and collage but often exists in between media. Recently, sheโs been making multilayered and double-sided paintings, which extend from or lean against the wall. Sometimes they stand on their own in space. The series crushes together collage, embroidery, text, and paint, and it focuses on a strange parallelism that has occurred between her research history and its recent embodiment within her medical history, the discovery of and surgery to remove a teratoma (or โmonstrous tumorโ) from her body, following ten years of referencing that medical anomaly in her work.
Image is courtesy of Allison Spence and Causeway.
My favorite moment in the show, which usually means I laughed to myself at some point while doing it. One of the older paintings is pictured, A Pain Demo (2015), here representing the personal history that preceded my teratoma (which, like the Creature, makes appearances throughout the collage). #dontlookitup #collage #horror
Untitled (fallen creature), 2026. I have many bits and I am deeply committed to all of them. Familiar without a Name is up through the month @causewayfl ๐คฟ #installation #monster
Untitled (hanging creature), 2026. Clear view of the splice-graft of my old work here. There are several spots in Familiar without a Name where elements in the collage are meant to correspond with the paintings nearby and this is the most subtle of them, I think.
The two new paintings currently up in Familiar Without a Name at @causewayfl contain some of my decade-old paintings inside of them. Grafted inside of them? I cut them up and then sewed them together. Watch me cut them up. โ๏ธ๐ท #collage #surgery #frankenstein
Installation images of ๐๐๐ข๐๐ก๐๐๐ง ๐ฌ๐๐ฉ๐๐ค๐ช๐ฉ ๐ ๐ฃ๐๐ข๐, a solo exhibition by Allison Spence @_allisonspence currently on view at Causeway.
This exhibition will be on view by appointment through May 30, 2026. To schedule a viewing, please dm @causewayfl or email [email protected].
Images are courtesy of Allison Spence and Causeway.
Familiar without a Name opening this afternoon at @causewayfl , Creature from the Black Lagoon makes several appearances in this iteration of the series. Unnamed, like Frankensteinโs creature. Invaded instead of created.
This Saturday!
Join us from 3-5 pm for the opening reception of ๐๐๐ข๐๐ก๐๐๐ง ๐ฌ๐๐ฉ๐๐ค๐ช๐ฉ ๐ ๐ฃ๐๐ข๐, a solo exhibition by Allison Spence @_allisonspence . This event is free and open to the public.
โ ๏ธ Causeway is located inside the Gordon Air & Heat Building (315 Minutemen Causeway, Cocoa Beach, FL โUnit 5). Scroll to the last slide to see what the building looks like!
โ ๏ธ FREE Parking is available in front of the gallery (despite what the signs say!) or around the corner on Woodland Ave.
Images 1 & 2 courtesy of the artist.
Causeway is thrilled to announce ๐๐๐ข๐๐ก๐๐๐ง ๐ฌ๐๐ฉ๐๐ค๐ช๐ฉ ๐ ๐ฃ๐๐ข๐, a solo exhibition by Allison Spence @_allisonspence
Spence centers her work on the figure of the monster and how it is used as a foil to enforce myths of a baseline, normative โhuman.โ ๐๐๐ข๐๐ก๐๐๐ง ๐ฌ๐๐ฉ๐๐ค๐ช๐ฉ ๐ ๐ฃ๐๐ข๐ย is an exhibition of work that crushes together collage, embroidery, text, and paint. Inspired by a strange parallelism that has occurred between her subject interest and its recent embodiment within her medical history, it draws upon a tradition of the unnamed monster, in this case ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ ๐๐ข๐จ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฏ, filmed in 1954 in Wakulla Springs, nearby the artistโs home.ย ย
Please join us for the opening reception on Saturday, May 2 from 3-5pm at 315 Minutemen Causeway, Cocoa Beach, FL (Unit 5).
Image courtesy of the artist.
Anyone who knows at least the academic version of me knows how much I love Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Iโll reliably cite him as an example of creating meaning during periods of aggressive censorship, and how the use of poetic language can be open and generous towards a variety of interpretations while at the same time slippery and resistant to control. Anyway. This week, two of the guards at one of the rooms in the National Galleryโs (thoughtfully curated, timely) Felix Gonzalez-Torres show noticed how attentively I was examining each piece and asked me if I was a fan of his work. This started a really lovely discussion between the three of us about the references, quirks of installation and deeper meaning of his work that was really kind of special and rare for the setting. Most of all, I think this experience was really a testament to the effectiveness of Gonzalez-Torres as an artist, and I was grateful for it. I particularly liked this silent video work, which I had never seen before. Thought Iโd share.
Short view of the other side of Reproductive Years, from The Weight of Becoming, in Chattanooga. This side in particular is slightly a self portrait. Among other things, see if you can spot my catโs mouth.
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#collage #installation #catpictures
