Statement

Ann Altar is a visual artist and educator. Blurring lines between candor and fiction, she intricately weaves slivers of her personal life into the stories she tells. This sometimes unnerving vulnerability allows the viewer a chance to see themselves reflected in her work and offers something of a rarity these days: a moment of connection. Often called rebellious, her work tackles taboo topics with a tender trace of humor. 

Ann's collage work is often large-scale, made with recycled and repurposed materials — rejecting notions of perfectionism and elitism while embracing a use-what-you-have mentality. She most frequently utilizes cardboard as a canvas but has also worked with window screens, glass door panels, plastic, discarded TVs, wood, and remnants of her own furniture. Unpretentious and hypnotic, her pieces push the boundaries of attention, leaning heavily into maximalism.

Ann's self-portraiture destigmatizes nudity, sexuality and menstruation, meeting the viewer with radical simplicity, vulnerability, and unapologetic posture. Ann relies on menstrual blood as a recurring motif, affirming one's life and power while rejecting paternalistic notions of how women should behave. Her series "Eat a Dick" explores identity reclamation, fear and feral power, exacting vengeance upon those who reduce people with uteruses to fetal incubators unworthy of sovereignty.

Ultimately Ann's ethos is a simple one: All living beings deserve respect and autonomy. She fiercely believes that every human deserves access to the arts, and thus, access to joy. Through connection and community, people may heal themselves and uplift one another. Radical change is possible, but only if we come together and demand it.