January 6, 2022 - February 19, 2022 —

Weirdly Clingy Colby Bishop

January 6, 2022- February 19 , 2022 Opening Reception: First Thursday, January 6, 5-8PM
Gallery hours: Saturdays, 12pm-3pm and by appointment. Email specialist.gallery@gmail.com or DM us on instagram (@specialist_sea) for inquiries.

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In a world where tactile stimulation is no longer a comfort but a threat and rarity, Weirdly Clingy points to the joys, awkwardness and intimacy of touch. In their newest body of work, Seattle-based artist Colby Bishop mines the psychosocial impacts of touch deprivation, creating soft sculptures that draw inspiration from maternity pillows, childhood stuffed animals and other comfort objects. Bright and garishly-colored anthropomorphic blobs, rendered in silk and spandex, lean, droop, reach and climb through the gallery. Unable to support themselves without inertia, Bishop’s uncanny bodily forms depend instead on each other and the hard, angular architecture of the gallery space. Part humor, part pathos, the sculptures in Weirdly Clingy embody our collective yet unrequited yearning for intimacy and physical connection.

Artist Bio:

Colby Bishop is a Seattle based artist working in soft sculpture and lens based mediums. Bishop explores mutability, queerness, the body, and the uncanny. Working primarily with lens based mediums and sculptural forms, Bishop attempts to capture these concepts in seemingly fixed ways with unstable materials.They earned their BFA in Studio Art from Cornish College of the Arts in 2021. Working across media and disciplines they have been a part of various shows, including, The RedLine Gallery Annual Show (2018), Bogus Blooms (2019), Cornish BFA Show (2020),  Sludge Case solo exhibition at Sun Spot Gallery (2021), BAAFS exhibition at Supperfield Museum (2021) and most recently The Happy Holiday Pop-Up at Specialist Gallery (2021).