On the Rise: Ali Futrell

Ali Futrell is a California-based artist, currently residing in San Francisco while she attends the San Francisco Art Institute. Futrell grew up in Granite Bay, California with a loving and supportive family of artists. She works mindfully and passionately across many mediums by expanding on ideas revolving around gender, beauty, and the inner ego. By exploring different techniques, Futrell discovers ways in which to express and share her thoughts and ideas. She creates with a sense of purpose, as she is inspired by the beauty of the world and the colors of nature that surround her.

Futrell’s current body of work, “Party of One,” uses playful tones of self-perception, factors of stereotypes versus identities, and manipulation of the contemporary female body. Exaggerated, large-scale figures explore humorously approached themed of self-confidence and acceptance through dramatic, intensified colors, bold moves, and extreme performance. 

The main event is a party, but it’s only a party of one. The work shares a story of self-perceived narcissism by celebrating, rather than judging, the acceptance of one’s identity and beauty through the choreography of performance. Isolating herself as the figure in these works enables the subject to stand along in the situations, to face judgments and stereotypes while embracing them. Synthetic objects participate in the fantasy: plastic balloon characters lurk in the party, while other props–streamers, cake, feathers–create clutter and chaos. This physical chaos reflects the interior, mental disarray ignited through recognition of social issues impacting constructed identity, perceptions of race, and conceptions of beauty.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website