Artist Statement

Primarily known for my textile works, I create encaustic collages that fuse beeswax, damar resin, and pigment with a variety of fabrics, including cotton, silk, linen, lace, thread, and wool. I paint with pigmented beeswax and damar resin for their transformative qualities, both in form and texture. The wax is fused with cloth, a material that lays bare the stories of its origins. By cutting, rearranging, and layering, I reconfigure traces of the past to produce a raw narrative. Tacit explorations of gender, identity, and place animate the hermeneutics of my work. Frayed seams, tangled threads, torn lace, veils, scarves, and other repurposed fabrics garner new meaning as metaphors for an evolving self.

Selected Exhibitions

2024

Selected Works by Alaina Enslen, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY

Works in Wax: Contemporary Women Encaustic Artists, Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

2023

Summer Art Show, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, New York

Spring Palette, Gallery 31, Poughkeepsie, New York

Complexity of Joy, Mapspace, Port Chester, New York

2022

With Wax: Materiality & Mixed Media in Encaustic, Chester County Art Association, West Chester, Pennsylvania

Small Works, Woodstock Artist Association & Museum, Woodstock, New York

2021

New Work, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, New York

Far & Wide, Woodstock Artist Association & Museum, Woodstock, New York

2020

Stay Home, Make Art, Virtual Exhibition, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, New York

Remnants, River Wind Gallery, Beacon, New York

2018

Winter Art Show, Green Light Gallery, Cornwall-On-Hudson, New York

2017

Bird Watching, University of Lisbon, Caleidoscópio, Portugal

Pop Up Art Exhibition, Orange Alert III: Espiritu, Newburgh, New York

2016

Bird Watching, Folio Festival, Obidos, Portugal

Bird Watching, University of Coimbra’s Science Museum, Coimbra, Portugal

2015

Hudson Valley in Encaustic, Green Light Gallery, Cornwall-On-Hudson, New York

2013

Alaina Enslen: New Work, Hudson Street Cafe, Cornwall-On-Hudson, New York

2012

December Art Show, Brazilian Endowment for the Arts, NYC

2010

26th Annual Elmore County Art Guild Winter Show, Wetumpka, Alabama (First Place in Photography and Purchase Award for First Community Bank)

2008

Landscapes in Transitions, Aurum Studios, Athens, Georgia

Full House, Lyndon House Art Center, Athens, Georgia