Chase Travaille is a ceramic artist born and raised in the American South. Within his figurative work, themes of social class, psychological trauma, and sexuality come to the foreground by the use of allegory and the fantastical. Chase is a graduate from the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Missouri and has shown his work both nationally and internationally. His most recent accomplishment is being the recipient of the Regina Brown Undergraduate Fellowship. These funds aided in his research of the Commedia Dell’Arte figurines by Franz Anton Bustelli in Munich, Germany. He currently lives and works in Fayetteville, Arkansas developing a new body of work responding to his investigation.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I memorialize my life history within my figurative work, referencing both past and present experiences using allegory and the fantastical to perform these stories. The figurine is the format for my work because of its tradition as a commemorative object. In comparison to their larger counterparts, they represent not only a diminution in scale, but also in their inherent status. Curating the disparity between symbols of luxury and proletariat motifs is a way I begin to use the figurines’ history to have a conversation about social class, marginalized cultures, and emotional trauma.

http://chasetravaille.blogspot.ca/

June, July 2017