Artist CV/Resume
About Ashley Rivers
Ashley Rivers is a Contemporary Multidisciplinary Artist living in Gulfport, Florida, who focuses on large-scale public art and private sculptures.
Creating unique works of art relating to the natural world and the environment, Ashley draws inspiration from the earth, our human identities, biology, and ecology. With a background in sculpture and ceramics, her work is centered around the connection we as individuals feel and have towards nature. Her contemporary style explores materials such as clay, concrete, metals, and more.
Ashley Rivers received her Bachelors of Fine Arts, with a concentration in Sculpture, from the University of South Florida. Since then, she has been creating art utilizing multiple mediums and techniques. Ashley spent the majority of her life growing up in Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida, and has worked hard to become an active member of the Arts Community. She is a mixed-raced, female artist whose work cultivates a range of mixed methods and imagery, and aims to embrace strength, wellness, and the phenomena of the physical world collectively.
Ashley Rivers has participated in, and curated, numerous exhibitions and large projects within Florida and the Tampa Bay Area. She has received several awards and grants including the 2021 St. Petersburg Arts Alliance Individual Artist Grant, the 2022 Creative Pinellas Emerging Artist Grant, and she was the first recipient of the 2022 Senator Darryl Rouson Artist Grant. She has had artworks exhibited at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center in Miami during 2022 Art BASEL, won the 2023 Gasparilla of the Arts Emerging Artist Award, won the 2023 Halo Arts Project Fellowship, received the 2024/2025 Arts Impact Fund for Visual Arts from Creative Pinellas, and was one of the Cycle 4 Recipients for the 2024 Gobioff Foundation Microgrants.
Artist Statement
"I make works from my soul-
Works that engage with feelings, nature, and emotions. I offer intimate moments inspired by the natural world and the environment, allowing each viewer a chance at self-reflection and individualized thought about the phenomena of the physical world. My work depicts stages of a journey relating to the natural world and the impact of human activity on its condition- or nature’s impact on us. I start with a simple impulse, and it develops and transforms into something multilayered and indefinable. "
Currently working under a Master Sculptor and Public Artist: Mark Aeling, Ashley has begun branching out into the public art world as well- helping creating monumental designs and artworks for cities and municipalities, as well as private development firms all over the world. She has learned the value of research and community engagement sessions to see firsthand the goals, missions, and needs of the projects and the environments they will serve. This makes Ashley the ideal candidate for your project!