Chase Irvin: Asking for the mud to give way

Organized by Vanessa Perez Winder

The Frank-Ratchye Project Space is pleased to present Asking for the mud to give way, an exhibition by studio artist Alum Chase Irvin.

In Asking for the mud to give way, Chase Irvin looks to the complex processes of grief through the lens of self-portraiture. Exploring themes of temporality, disembodiment, and impermanence using new mediums and an abstracted visual language,  these new paintings channel the interior, transitory nature of loss. 

Materiality and process play a central role in this exhibition, mirroring the fluidity and mutability of mourning.  In Acts of Impermanence I-II , Irvin practices the labor of letting go and relinquishing control. Layering sensitive materials on top of clay and allowing them to interact and resist, she harnesses their spontaneous reactions. In contrast, her ethereal treatment of light, shadow, and perspective in the Mud series renders them as elusive, fragmented reflections of the self. 

Asking for the mud to give way makes space for viewers to linger in the ambiguity of grief—not as an ending, but as an unfolding. Irvin offers a meditation on grief as a generative force, illustrating how surrendering to change can foster deep personal and artistic evolution.