Exhibitions

AMELIA BRIGGS & ELLEN DEMPSEY: MOLDY GHOST

VERSA Gallery / 1918 Union Ave. , Chattanooga , TN July 13, 2019 - July 27, 2019

Amelia Briggs, Ellen Dempsey

This July Amelia Briggs and Ellen Dempsey reunite in the two person exhibition Moldy Ghost at Versa Gallery in Chattanooga, TN.

Through a shared interest in domestic objects as triggers to monuments of self and the politics of home, Briggs and Dempsey present various assemblages in a one room installation. Like a lost corner in your mind, Moldy Ghost nods to a forgotten space, once intimate and necessary, now fragmented and unnameable.

Similar to her "inflatables" Briggs plays with puffy forms that take on new shapes and textures including a bloated box with skewed appendages, packing materials and a furry creature that confronts the viewer with memories of a long forgotten playmate.

Dempsey continues her sculptural exploration of domestic furniture through new combinations of displaced tables, chairs, and drawers. The discarded scraps, often found on the side of the road, are reassembled into fragmented three-dimensional collages that feel both familiar and strange.

Amelia Briggs is a visual artist and gallery director based in Nashville, TN. Her work has been featured in a number of publications and podcasts and continues to be exhibited throughout the country. In 2019 Briggs was selected as the Juror for the National SECAC Conference exhibition. Her work is included in private and public collections in Washington, New York, Indiana, and throughout the Southeast.

Ellen Dempsey lives and works in Nashville, TN. She earned her MFA from the University of Memphis in 2018 and was awarded the International Sculpture Center's 2018 Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award. Her work has been exhibited in Alabama, Arkansas, New Jersey, and Tennessee as well as being included in public collections in Tennessee.