Ashlin McAndrew is a visual artist whose practice examines the fractured relationship between national identity, technological progress, and the natural world. With an academic background from Central Saint Martins and Vanderbilt University, McAndrew integrates her training as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner into her work, exploring the ruptures that disconnect us from our bodies, our communities, and the earth.

Her latest practice involves the radical repurposing of contemporary detritus—discarded plastic plants, decommissioned fire hoses, and obsolete electronics. By applying traditional craft techniques such as quilting, coiling, and hand-stitching to these industrial materials, she creates a tension between methods rooted in cultural memory and materials born from industrial amnesia. Central to her current collection is the metaphor of the plastic plant: an artificial reproduction of life created by a culture that simultaneously fears the natural world. Rendered in waste, her recurring use of American symbols like flags and maps reflects a nation that has become what it consumes—synthetic, fragmented, and struggling to sustain its own contradictions.

McAndrew’s career is marked by a deep commitment to material inquiry and resistance against disposable culture. Her work has been exhibited internationally, with notable upcoming appearances at the Arte Laguna Prize in the Arsenale Nord, Venice, and the CICA Museum in South Korea. Other significant exhibitions include ‘Material Futures’ in London and ‘PreTense’ in Santa Fe. Through a process of "deep listening" to found objects, McAndrew seeks to offer small antidotes to technocracy, holding space for beauty, connection, and the lost art of the handcrafted image.

Education & Training

2022

MA Material Futures, Central Saint Martins

London, UK

2017

BA Studio Art, Vanderbilt University

Nashville, USA

Exhibition & Projects (Selection)

2026

Circle, CICA Museum, Gimpo, Südkorea (bevorstehend / upcoming)

Arte Laguna Finalist Exhibition, Arsenale Nord, Venedig, Italien (bevorstehend / upcoming)

2025

Intimacy, 94Gallery, Chiang Mai, Thailand

PreTense, Studio 51, Santa Fe, USA

Recycle Santa Fe, Sweeney Center, Santa Fe, USA

2022

Material Futures, Granary Building, London, UK

2021

Material Propositions, Granary Building, London, UK

Land Chapters, Artist Field, Richmond, Vermont, USA

2020

Design for Non-Human Life, Central Saint Martins, London, UK

2017

Margaret Stonewall Woodridge Hamblet Show, Space 204, Nashville, USA

A More Perfect Union, Dear America, The Tang Teaching Museum, Saratoga Springs, New York, USA