Hannah Albrecht

Studio Art major

My practice is rooted in oil painting and printmaking, but it continuously evolves as I foster a multidisciplinary creative practice that builds upon and supports itself. Though, throughout all of my work, I am a figurative artist. I see the body as a vessel to explore themes of sexuality, agency, and, more recently, my medical struggles and experience dealing with chronic pain.

Often my pieces are confrontational, using gore or nudity to unveil barely hidden truths about my experience existing in my body. In this regard, my work is deeply personal and is irrevocably shaped by my identity and social position. However, I firmly believe that by examining my own queerness or sickness, I am engaging with larger societal issues, and our bodies, as archives of our experiences, can reveal shared narratives and collective histories. This interconnectedness is another reason why people are so fascinating to me and why I am so drawn to working with the figure.

I strive to create work that is raw and resonant. By embracing vulnerability and confronting discomfort, I aim to foster connection and spark dialogue about the complexities of embodiment, identity, and shared experience.

Body Manufactured by MEDLINE

oil on canvas, hospital gown, thread, wood, paper, acrylic

Jewett Gallery

Body Manufactured by MEDLINE is a project that explores how my declining health has led to disillusionment with my surroundings, my body, my sense of self, and my memories, specifically during my time in the hospital and in recovery. Many of my memories have been distilled down to a monotonous set of movements and visual patterns that create a life that often feels like I am watching it from the sidelines. In this project, it was crucial for me to convey the disconnect between experience and memory, and show how my physical body remembers through pain, while my brain can only remember repetition.

This work is fundamentally introspective self-portraiture, and I imagine my body appearing through both representational imagery and the patterns that have eclipsed this digestible self. During my extended hospital stay, many motifs occupied my vision and consciousness, including patterning on hospital gowns and curtains, undergarments, and biohazard bags. I incorporate these individuality-stripping hopsital-issued items into my potraits because they were intrinsically enmeshed with my sense of self at the time, and in making this work, I wanted to try to further understand the body I inhabited then, and my recovering body now. With the deliberate incorporation of these institutional aesthetics, Body Manufactured by MEDLINE also explores how the pervasive visual language of healthcare can infiltrate and reshape individual identity during periods of acute vulnerability and dependence.

to see more work by Hannah: hannahalbrecht.myportfolio.com/

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