Stephanie Hanes "Ignite"

Stephanie E. Hanes (b. Alberta, Canada) is a Canadian contemporary sculptor working primarily in ceramics, bronze, and glass. Through figurative forms, Hanes investigates the grotesque body as a site of resistance, examining how femininity, myth, and power intersect within systems of repression and symbolic violence.
Hanes received a BFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University in 2009 and an MFA in Ceramics from Rhode Island School of Design in 2017, where they were awarded the prestigious Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship for exceptional promise. In 2020, they were named one of the NCECA Emerging Artists, recognizing their significant contribution to contemporary ceramics.
Hanes has exhibited internationally, including a solo exhibition at C.R.E.T.A Rome Gallery in Italy. They were awarded a residency at Lefebvre et Fils Gallery in Paris, where they have participated in several group exhibitions. Their work has also been presented with Secci Contemporary in Florence.
Museum exhibitions include presentations at The Gardiner Museum, Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Arizona State University Museum, Fuller Craft Museum, and the RISD Museum Gelman Gallery. Additional gallery exhibitions include Eutectic Gallery (Portland), Seasons Gallery (Seattle), Five Car Garage (Los Angeles), and The Untitled Space (New York).
Hanes currently serves as Assistant Professor of Ceramic Art at the New York College of Ceramics at Alfred University, where they teach ceramic sculpture.
Artist Statement
“The grotesque body is not an ugly body but rather a nonconformist one, opposed to the finished and polished. Conceptually, it is used as a vehicle for exploring repression; its uncanniness exposes the presumed familiarity of symbolic violence and its reaction to the female form’s link to monstrosity. That linkage reflects the fear of female power and the anti-female narratives embedded in Greek myth and culture that persist to this day.
By using the strategy of mimesis, I unravel feminine truths through mimicry of the ‘ideal’ to make the unseen visible, disrupting the illusion of singularity that contradicts the multidimensional experience of reality. The grotesque body holds both the potential for creativity and destruction. This deconstruction opposes traditional binary distinctions and gives representational form to new thoughts.”

Learn more about her artwork on our website.