Anastasia Wagner
Sylvania, Ohio
Artist Biography
Anastasia Wagner received her B.F.A. summa cum laude with a concentration in painting and drawing from The University of Toledo (Ohio) in 2018. She began her professional involvement in the arts as an Apprentice for Young Artists At Work through The Arts Commission (Toledo, Ohio). She later returned to The Arts Commission for an arts administration internship through The University of Toledo (UT) in 2016 before completing an additional UT academic internship at 20 North Gallery in 2017.
Wagner is a frequent contributor to juried and group exhibitions including Artomatic 419 (Toledo, Ohio) in 2013 and 2015, Dream or Nightmare at the SCENE Metrospace (Lansing, Michigan) in 2016, Undisclosed at Toledo School for the Arts (Ohio) in 2018, 2019 and 2022, the Mini Maker Faire at Momentum (Promenade Park, Toledo, Ohio) in 2018 as well as numerous exhibitions at The University of Toledo: the Center for the Visual Arts, College of Engineering and UT Medical Center, for which she has won multiple scholarships and awards. In July of 2022, her Flower collage series was installed in the 2-person exhibit, Chalk, Paper, Scissors, with pastel painter Paul Brand at 20 North Gallery. Recently, her work was exhibited in the Athena Art Society Juried Exhibition at Wolfe Gallery at Maumee Valley Country Day School (Toledo, Ohio) as well as an Athena Art Society group exhibition in the Walter E. Terhune Art Gallery of Owens Community College (Perrysburg, Ohio).
Wagner has also been involved in the arts community as a Guest Juror for the Toledo Artists’ Club and Judge for the categories of Jewelry and Sculpture in the Crosby Festival of the Arts at Toledo Botanical Garden (Ohio). Additionally, she has fulfilled public-art commissions, including a mural installed at the Main Branch of the Toledo Lucas County Public Library (Ohio). She is a current member of the Athena Art Society (Ohio) and an Independent Member of the Toledo Federation of Art Societies (Ohio), for which she serves as Exhibition Committee Chair.
Anastasia Wagner is currently the Gallery Manager at 20 North Gallery, having experienced working with the gallery through her internship in 2017. During that internship, she curated Joanne Grossmann: the Larger Narrative (2017), a retrospective of the late Toledo artist and was instrumental in researching provenance and artist information for The Grant Collection (2017). Following her graduation in 2018, she became the first paid employee of 20 North Gallery, serving first as Gallery Associate and then Gallery Coordinator. 20 North Gallery is proud to include Wagner’s mixed media collage artworks in stable representation, as well as have the benefit of her contributions as a valued colleague. Her principal exhibits at the gallery are TFAS100+3: Juried Regional Exhibition (2020) and Chalk, Paper, Scissors: Works on Paper by Paul Brand and Anastasia Wagner (2022).
Artist Statement
I have long been interested in the history of medical discoveries, particularly how they influenced human experience and by extension, art movements in their respective time periods. Several pieces in my series of medical collages tap into my own personal experiences, fears, or stressors regarding matters of health.
Vision: The Retina
Featuring my class notes from a university physics course, this collage looks at how the human eye and brain work together to observe and interpret an image. The figures in this collage come from a broad span of time in the history of art and human medicine. A statue of Aristotle (“godfather of evidence-based medicine”) is pictured, as well as figures from Rembrandt’s 1632 The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicholaes Tulp. Andreas Vesalius, known in part for his work in studying and drawing human anatomy is also shown. To reflect my wonder at the concept of vision, this collage plays with these images, skewing the optics diagram and having the figures peer through phoropters and vision simulators.
A Brief History
This piece is a survey of the history of surgery and medicine, as it was recorded in Western art history. Acrylic medium transfers of various medical forms—like those one would fill out while in the waiting room of a doctor’s office—span the background of this collage. Overlaid are paintings, frescoes and photographs from artists such as Hieronymus Bosch and Thomas Eakins.
What, Are You Blind?
I got my first pair of glasses in middle school, after a long time of not being aware that I needed them. I figured no one was able to read the board at the front of the classroom when seated in the back. Very few kids enjoy being put on the spot when the teacher asks them a question—and when asked to answer a simple question you cannot read because you simply cannot see it, it might as well be calculus or physics. Here, the viewer is unable to make out much of the muddled college-level diagrams on the board, while every other kid in the room stares back, amused.
Anastasia Wagner’s previous 20 North Gallery exhibits:
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