Artist Bio

Grace Atchison is a multidisciplinary artist based in Houston, Texas. She will receive her bachelor’s degree in 3D Studio Art with a teaching certification from Sam Houston State University in Fall 2026. Within her work, Atchison discusses women’s rights, the social pressures and stereotypes women face, and the bonds that women create and share through their hardships. She expresses these ideas through ceramics, oil painting, woodwork, drawing, collage, embroidery, weaving, and mixed media. Her work has been displayed in the Student Art Association's Juried Show for the past 2 years at the Satellite Gallery in Huntsville, Texas. Her work was also featured in the Huntsville Item Newspaper in 2024. She was awarded the James and Carol McTee Roach Art Endowed Scholarship and the Smither Family Art Endowed Scholarship for the 2026-2027 academic year, as well as the Penland scholarship, the Distinguished Art Faculty Endowed Scholarship, and the Patrick E. Brown Scholarship in the 2025-2026 academic year.

Artist Statement

Since the late 1800s, women have been fighting for their rights, and yet we still aren’t equal. Our work is viewed as lesser than, and we must fight twice as hard to get the recognition we deserve, all while having to uphold the standards society has forced upon us. In my work, I depict the female experience and challenge the societal pressures and stereotypes that women face. I express these ideas through ceramics, oil painting, woodwork, drawing, collage, embroidery, weaving, and mixed media. My body of work features repeated elements of polka dots and the color pink, both of which have been associated with femininity, empowerment, and community-building through fashion throughout the decades. Also depicted in the exhibition are women’s domestic techniques that have historically been regarded as craft, such as embroidery, weaving, and ceramics. I use these materials as an ode to the female artists before me and as a defiance of the terminology.

With the sculptures and mixed media in my series, I hope that women walk away feeling understood and empowered to keep fighting for equality, while men walk away with a greater appreciation for the women in their lives.