Artist Aisha Harrison, currently featured at BIMA, invites you to explore the rich evolution of her creative practice—from the early influences that shaped her path to the powerful ideas fueling her latest exhibition. Through her presentation, Aisha will reveal how the intertwined cycles of grief, growth, and joy are reflected in her work, bringing deeply personal and universal stories to life.

Following the talk, Aisha will sit down with Jenna d’Anna, BIMA’s Senior Manager of Museum Education & Community Engagement, for an insightful conversation. The event wraps up with a lively Q&A and a casual reception—offering a unique chance to connect with the artist, ask your questions, and gain a deeper understanding of the passion and process behind her work.

$10 members/$12 non-members

ARTIST BIO

Aisha is a studio and public artist working primarily in clay and bronze. They discovered clay at a community studio while pursuing a degree in Spanish at Grinnell College in Iowa. After graduating, Aisha taught third and fourth grades in Atlanta, Georgia, while exploring clay at Callenwolde Fine Arts Center and Penland School of Crafts. They later earned a BFA from Washington State University and an MFA from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Aisha uses the body as a site to explore lived experiences of racism, ancestral (human and non-human) connections, and, as a mixed-race Black person, the complex histories held within their body. Their work honors real bodies while incorporating physical forms of the intangible. The figures they create often intertwine with elements of the natural world, many of which are native to the Pacific Northwest, where Aisha’s family has lived for four generations. Their work balances the individual and the collective, reflecting unique identities alongside a larger community and nature’s relatives.

Currently, Aisha is working on a large-scale outdoor public art commission with the University of Washington Tacoma and the Washington State Arts Commission, as well as pieces for a solo exhibition at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. Their studio work has been shown nationally at venues including Pottery Northwest, The Whatcom Museum, The Bascom, Crocker Art Museum, Northern Clay Center, Wa Na Wari, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Jordan Schnitzer Museum at WSU, and the Leonor R. Fuller Gallery at South Sound Community College. They have completed residencies at Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, Women’s Studio Workshop, and Baltimore Clayworks, and have taught workshops and courses at many institutions, including Pottery Northwest, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Penland School of Crafts, The Evergreen State College, Baltimore Clayworks, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and the Lux Center for the Arts.

Learn more about Aisha’s work.

Header image: Photo by Misael Martinez