Alison Fast
(b. Milwaukee, 1992)
Lives and works in Vancouver, BC
Alison Fast (she/her) is a visual artist whose work aims to question how we experience and perceive things around us. Referring and inspired by concepts of perception, thought, memory, and awareness – Alison’s work limbos between the abstract and the representative, exemplifying how we individually experience and make up meaning of things in the world.
Through playful colours, collage, and casual gestural brushstrokes, Alison’s work aims to demonstrate both movement and stillness. The transparencies between layers of colour allow for the acknowledgement of Alison’s process of making and thinking. Each artwork is a reflection of the entanglement between how we experience it, recognize its components, and reflect ourselves within it.
The layers and fragments in Alison’s work depict her curiosity about how we can look at things both as a fragmented part of something else, and as a whole itself. The abstracted use of colours and textures, and the subtle conveying of objects in Alison’s work allow us to recognize and relate to the artwork.
Alison’s artistic practice aims to reference historical artistic movements like abstract expressionism, provisional painting, and colour field-painting. Drawing from the personal, historical and the contemporary, Alison’s practice investigates questions of meaning-making through how she engages with the material.
ALISON FAST CV
EDUCATION
2018-Present, MA, University of BriHsh Columbia, Vancouver, BC 2017 BFA, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, BC
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020 SHll Hills, Slice of Life Gallery
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017 Art Waste, James Black Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2017 The Show, Emily Carr University, Vancouver, BC
2017 In ConversaHon, Concourse Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2017 Telephone, Neighborhood Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2016 SpaHal PoeHcs, Neighborhood Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2015 These Small Things Emily Carr University, Vancouver, BC
2014 Landing Gallery, Emily Carr University, Vancouver, BC
GRANTS AND AWARDS
2016 Jack and Doris Shadbolt Scholarship
2016 Dornacilla Drysdale Peck Memorial Scholarship
2012 Herb Kohl Scholarship
COLLECTIONS
Works in private collections in Vancouver and the United States.
RELATED WORK
2020 Arts & Music Educator, Chorus & Clouds
2019 Ceramics Instructor, Douglas Community Centre
2017 Arts Educator, Collage Collage
2017 Arts Educator, Jewish Community Centre
2016 Studio Assistant, Emily Carr University
2013 Ceramics Instructor & Studio Manager, HoneyRock Centre for Outdoor Leadership