Asher Rey
BackBiography
ASHER REY
Lives- New Iberia, LA
Asher Rey (she/they) is an interdisciplinary artist and storyteller, born and raised in southern Louisiana. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Art from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2019, as well as her Master of Fine Art in Studio Art from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2023. Originally drawn to art as a creative lifestyle, Asher’s path evolved into a professional career grounded in craftsmanship and creativity. She works with various mediums and processes, allowing intuition to align concept with craft. Asher’s current work revisits the themes explored in her MFA thesis exhibition, “Until Morning,” which was originally shown to an audience outside of Louisiana. She desires to have this body of work displayed and celebrated in its entirety within the home and community that it’s derived from.
Artist Statement
My work uses painting, drawing, sculpture, film, and installation to explore storytelling derived from the deeply personal. Rooted in the queer and southern experience, I create fragments of a visual world that reflect the distance one can to survive, process, and heal from trauma. Building characters, personas, and landscapes within the bounds of my body and my surroundings allow me to explore the vastness of my identity and memory through dreamscapes of the south. Themes of authorship, intimacy, and transformation share equal space with taboo methods of coping. The production of my work is a restorative act that allows the story I tell to remain autonomous. All in all, who I have become is forever meshed with where I am from; every emotion I’ve felt and every place I’ve stumbled through is honored and held gently in the process.
Cirriculum Vitae
EDUCATION
2023 MFA in Studio Art (Painting and Sculpture), University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
2019 BFA in Studio Art (Painting), University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2026 UPLIFT, NUNU Arts & Culture Collective, Arnaudville, LA
2023 Until Morning, Eisentrager-Howard Gallery, Lincoln, NE
2022 Align, MEDICI Gallery, Lincoln, NE
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 Root, The Hallway Gallery, Lafayette, LA
Next Phase, Fletcher Hall Gallery, Lafayette, LA
FELT, Glassell Gallery, Baton Rouge, LA
2023 2023 Benefit Art Auction, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE
Lavender Country, LUX Center for the Arts, Lincoln, NE
2022 Catharsis, Cite des Arts, Lafayette, LA
2020 Identity, Basin Arts, Lafayette, LA
Genesis Figure Show & Body Art, Creative Spaces Gallery, Lafayette, LA
2019 Fluid, Mattea Studio, Lafayette, LA
Open Studio Tour 2019, Acadiana Center for the Arts, Lafayette, LA
Senior Exhibitons, Fletcher Hall Gallery, Lafayette, LA
Fresh Pickins, Acadiana Center for the Arts, Lafayette, LA
Juried Exhibition, Fletcher Hall Gallery, Lafayette, LA
2018 Juried Exhibition, Fletcher Hall Gallery, Lafayette, LA
RELATED EXPERIENCE
2025-2026 Visual Arts Coordinator, Acadiana Center for the Arts, Lafayette, LA
2025 Adjunct Professor (3D Design), University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA
2020-2023 Fabrication Space Assistant (Richards Hall), University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
Gallery Assistant, Eisentrager-Howard Gallery, Lincoln, NE
2023 Instructor of Record (Sculpture), University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
2021-2022 Instructor of Record (Beginning Drawing), University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
2021 Instructor of Record (Color and Composition), University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
2019-2020 Art Instructor, Basin Arts, Lafayette, LA