February 27, 2021 – April 16, 2021
Hawthorn Contemporary is pleased to announce the exhibition opening of Wash & Set featuring works by LaNia Sproles and Ariana Vaeth. Through printmaking, drawing, and painting these two artists, who also happen to be best friends, explore ideas rooted in relationships, self-care, family, and comfort. With the exhibition (all the works created in 2020 and 2021), they state; “In the fading utilized acts of self-care, these best friends depict in their works what it looks like to pour back into their lives when given the bare bones. Their work stems from the impossibility of commemorating the ones that shape them. Wash and Set is merely preparation to fall into our softest tresses of ourselves, something much sweeter than perfecting survival.”
Sproles and Vaeth graduated from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD) in 2O17, completing a semester exchange program together through the AICAD Mobility program at the Maryland Institute College of Art the year prior. Consecutively receiving the Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s Mary L. Nohl Grant cycle 15 and 17 in the Emerging artist category, they have a best friend status. Vaeth and Sproles are currently fulfilling their time between working in their studios, as educators and working within the art non-profit realm.