Alannah Sears

Lives and works in New York, NY

Artist statement

I create work that translates unspoken feelings into physical, illustrated forms, communicating the complex relationships I have with my own body and emotions. My practice latches onto the ambiguity of femininity, womanhood, and beauty through the simplicity of drawing and the labor-intensive process of printmaking. I encapsulate female figures in voided spaces that confine them within the canvas's parameters, shaping their poses within the paper's borders. The voided space reflects the environment in which emotions form, a force birthing from the unknown and the unseen. The lack of placement or defined environment amplifies the bodies, the hair, and the interplay between soft rendering and graphic detail. This pairing of styles contrasts the hard and the soft, breaking out of reality to convey a more playful, imaginative quality in the figures and to communicate the unspoken truths within ourselves. Purposeful lines and delicate shading form these figures, giving them weight both literally, as they occupy the paper's physical space, and metaphorically, as they represent marginalized “mid-sized” and “plus-sized” female forms. These women embody a range of emotions, transforming them into a landscape of expression. They contort and elongate, seeking to inhabit and ultimately transgress the confines of pre-defined spaces, challenging expectations of conformity.

Artwork