About me
Alaina Plowdrey Forehand (b. 1986) is an American figurative painter, scholar, and educator from Michigan. Her work explores portraiture as a site of encounter, examining how identity, memory, and embodiment emerge through the relationship between subject and beholder. Through layered compositions that balance observation and abstraction, Forehand creates spaces where viewers are invited to participate in constructing meaning, blurring the boundaries between the self and the Other, and between presence and perception, thereby extending the concept of the beholder.
Her artistic practice is informed by interdisciplinary research in phenomenology, neuroscience, and aesthetic philosophy. Drawing upon theories of embodiment and human perception, she investigates how contemporary portraiture reflects the complexities of lived experience in an increasingly technological world. Her doctoral research examines the evolving role of the portrait within contemporary visual culture, considering how traditional modes of representation intersect with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence while remaining grounded in the enduring human desire to understand ourselves and one another.
Forehand holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Visual Arts: Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Art Theory through the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts and a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the New York Academy of Art. She also earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the College for Creative Studies and an Associate of Fine Arts from Delta College. She is the recipient of an artist residency at The Studios of Key West and an Anne McKee Artist Grant. Her work has been exhibited nationally in solo and group exhibitions, including the Pensacola Museum of Art, the Realism Biennial at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, and Forum Gallery in New York City. Her research has been presented at national and international conferences, including SECAC, SEACT, the Southern Humanities Conference, Women in STEAM, and the University of Michigan. Alongside her studio practice, Forehand has spent more than fifteen years working in higher education as an instructor, academic leader, and advocate for student success.
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