Ally Z: The Starving Artist exhibition

Interview with Ally Z by Hazel Brill for Together Unlocked!

Painting of a woman in a loose white sleeveless dress, floating underwater in a swimming pool, with her image reflected in the surface. The painting is displayed in a virtual gallery.

Ally Z: The Value of Lightness 

Click here to enter the exhibition, which you will be able to navigate similarly to a physical gallery (Warning: contains nudes and images of eating disorders). On Tuesday 17 November at 7pm we held a ‘Public View’ of Ally Z’s The Starving Artist exhibition, where Ally was interviewed by Together! 2012 CIC’s Artistic Director Dr Ju Gosling FRSA. An edited version containing BSL interpretation is coming shortly, but in the meantime you can see the live recording here.

Computer generated image of a digital gallery, seen from above without a ceiling.

Ally Z’s virtual gallery space

Ally Z is 22 years old and holds a BFA in Visual Art & Art History from Queen’s University & an MLitt Curatorial Practice from the Glasgow School of Art. She is currently pursuing her Doctorate of Creative Arts with the University of Southern Queensland. Ally has dualistic experience as a Curator/ Artist and has been involved in many projects and galleries globally, ranging from projects with such galleries as Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Hunterian Art Gallery and Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Art. https://www.instagram.com/allycardone/ https://ally.pb.studio/

Four large paintings are displayed on one wall of a virtual gallery. Each shows the image of a woman in different stages of being sick in the bathroom.

Ally Z: Worshiping the porcelain throne

Ally’s perspective is that the human condition is more complex than is currently understood. Using primarily, painting, collage, and sculpture, she examines, instigates and provokes notions of the individual experience through specifically focusing on philosophical discourse, body image, embodiment, animals and ethics. 

Two paintings are displayed on the wall of a computer-generated virtual gallery. Both show a young white woman with long hair, dressed in a white short-sleeved top and black leggings, eating directly from a packet of cereal.

Ally Z: Euphoria

Ally’s book The Starving Artist: Understanding Body Image and Eating Disorders within Contemporary Art is in over 30 Universities wirld wide including Harvard, Yale, Princeton etc. Ally has founded an artists’ community https://thestarvingartist.pb.studio/ and has started a charity for The Starving Artist as well which has raised over £5000 for Eating Disorder Treatment.

Painting displayed on the wall of a virtual gallery of a close up of a shower control panel with the artist's back reflected in the mirror

Ally Z: the Bathtub series