Understanding the Art History of Ashley Longshore
Being put in the same artistic category as the late Andy Warhol is no small feat. So, for Ashley Longshore to find herself in those good graces, at least in art media commentary, she’s achieved quite a lot in her current career.
Longshore has long been credited for a specific trend of hers, utilizing the visual icons of well-known celebrities as her artwork bread and butter. As she incorporates these public faces within her pieces, Longshore has found a wide and interested audience who responds well to modern-era imagery and kitsch, which, of course, draws comparisons to Warhol’s approach in the 1960s and 70s as well. Longshore is no flash in the pan butterfly either; she hobnobs in venues like Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman as well as enjoying Salma Hayek and Eli Manning among her private customers. She’s been on Brit + Co’s list of top female artists to get to know, and her digital Rolodex has continued to grow exponentially, easily gobbling up clients on Wall Street as well.
Ashley Longshore is well known for being a big voice, lots of gusto, and a hell of a backbone for “doing things her way.” Longshore is also not afraid of a bit of snarky humor either. Her artwork deals with the common, the banal, and the religious all at the same time, likely offending folks across both sides of the traditional aisle while wooing those who would prefer some thinking creativity to spark a conversation or two. The idea of Jesus hanging out with an AMEX credit card in hand pretty much signals Longshore’s attitude that nothing is untouchable, and her play on nursery rhymes seems both familiar and twisted simultaneously. Her audience and fans generally love it. In fact, even Conde Naste’ magazine listed her studio as one of the top 15 things to do when visiting New Orleans.
Ashley Longshore’s current stage involves treading into the digital world with non-fungible tokens or NFTs. The lucrative digital market has been beckoning many artists after Beeple landed a $69 million deal on his NFT launch. Longshore partnered with Metagolden to launch a new NFT program for digital collectors to be able to tap into new artists with unique and singular NFT items put up for auction. Ashley Longshore herself will represent Metagolden’s first collaboration put online and offered to customers, leading a new path for art collection from the South.
Bold, brash, direct, and on target, Ashley Longshore has no illusions about where she is right now in her career arc. In interviews with visiting writers and journalists, she points out the lucrative nature of her art pieces and what she thinks they are worth. At times, she even describes what she wants to do with the money they will sell for if successful on the market, including travel trips and new venture outreaches across the country. However, it’s not all about herself; Longshore regularly makes a point to participate in events and showings supporting women, such as her contributions to the exhibit, “She is Rising,” in May 2021.
As noted earlier though, Ashley Longshore earned her keep. Regardless of whatever folks might think of her, Ashley Longshore has the talent and skill to produce what valuable customers and fans want to see in today’s art, as well as pay for it. Longshore knows in that respect her comparison to Warhol has some roots in similarities, but that’s where it stops. Ashley Longshore enjoys a world that wants and lives in diversity, which actually makes her job harder to breakthrough today.
Ashley Longshore may posit herself as a lot of things but the art world is clear on one point; she is a woman artist entrepreneur shaking things up, shocking the traditional paradigm of the gallery relationship, and she is enjoying herself along the way. Given what’s she’s done so far, 2022 is a wide-open shot to the moon for Longshore.
