Interviewing Alison Croney Moses, Loewe Craft Prize Finalist

Today, we’re sending a bonus issue featuring an artist chat. Tuesday, we’ll be back to our regular Museum & Gallery updates.

The Loewe Craft Prize is an annual competition and remarkable honor recognizing international artists “who demonstrate an exceptional ability to create objects of superior aesthetic value”. This year, the finalists’ works were on view at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, though also available for viewing via the digital exhibition.

We had the pleasure of speaking with one of the finalists, Alison Croney Moses. Moses (b. 1983) is an artist, woodworker, and educator based out of Boston. Her wooden sculpture “Holly Shell” was recognized as a finalist for the Craft Prize.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Can you tell us when you began pursuing art? Did you come from an artist family?

I grew up in North Carolina with parents from Guyana, South America. Arts & crafts were a part of how I grew up. My mom sewed clothes that we wore, my dad made some furniture. Making was part of our lives, and it was valued.

By high school, I took AP Art and decided to apply to all art and design schools, eventually attending Rhode Island School of Design. That was when pursuing art went from a maybe to committing to it.

I started in Graphic Design but switched to Furniture. I felt I wanted to learn a craft. It was not easy; I had to do an extra year, but in school, I started to find my aesthetic.

I held art-related jobs out of school, but they were not focused on making. For the last 10 years, I’ve been teaching woodworking at the Eliot School of Fine Art. In December, after my solo show at Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, I left to pursue art full time.

Congratulations on now being able to pursue art full-time — what an exciting moment.

I feel fortunate. I have a business mindset, and I apply that to my art business. I am an artist, but I’m really a small-business owner, and my product is art.

I say that to give value to the structure within which we make.

What drew you to specifically to woodworking as your medium of choice?

I remember my dad making furniture, and I was always his helper. I was drawn to the physical, tactile nature of the material. These childhood memories influenced me towards it.

And… the joy. There’s a different kind of joy in the wood shop than other creative spaces. I don’t know — maybe that’s my bias.

Would you say the typical wood shop is a very collaborative space?

It can be. For me, it’s been pretty independent. I am still limited on time because I have kids, so my time in the shop is targeted. I want it to be collaborative, I think one day it will get back to that.

I understand what you’re saying — my time in a studio is very focused, it’s very meditative. What do you want people to feel and consider when observing you art?

The themes that show up for people, and that show up when making them, are these perched forms that talk to the human body. Loosely, I’d say natural forms, human body, safety, connection.

I’ve done some work that is specifically looking at motherhood and Black motherhood — I’m a Black mom. Pieces that bring to the surface safety and interdependence and love between babies and their mothers. I’ve made other pieces around surgery and body repair, related to my experience with pregnancy and childbirth.

Some people see these themes — others see a hanging wooden shell, a craft.

How do you feel about that — do you still get satisfaction if the focus is only on the craft?

We can have our intention as a maker, but we can’t control how people receive it, just like everything else in the world. I feel very grateful that the things I like to make, people like to look at.

When I have the opportunity to guide a viewer a little bit more directly, it’s more intense. I participated in an exhibition, Un-Adulterated Black Joy, at the Piano Craft Gallery last year. It was a collection of Black moms putting artwork out there, and mine was about my body. I’d put together a video of gatherings of Black moms connecting to each other. After the artist talk, one mother came up to me in tears expressing how she felt seen. It was really moving.

It must be so rewarding to see your art move people so deeply.

Yes, it is really rewarding. I’m grateful and humbled that other people are having those experiences when engaging with my work.

Two final quick questions — who is an artist influence, and who is a peer you admire?

I look to Theaster Gates, a contemporary ceramic artist who does a lot of community engagement. His work tears down boundaries and challenges me to think outside of typical structures.

And, Tanya Nixon-Silberg is a local artist and friend of mine. Everything she does I’m inspired and blown away by.