Spend the evening with artist A.V. Rankin for a gallery talk exploring the cultural and artistic history of inflatable sculpture and air-based forms.

Drawing connections among works by Andy Warhol, Mike Kelley, Nick Cave, and artists featured in Fresh Air: Inflatable Sculptures, Rankin will examine how air functions as both a material and a symbol across art, technology, and the collective imagination.

Discover how softness, mass-produced objects, and cultural ephemera challenge traditional ideas of sculpture. The conversation will also consider inflatables as objects of tenderness and vulnerability, positioned between ecological awareness and social experimentation.

About the Artist

Ana Vizcarra Rankin (A.V.) is a Uruguayan-American artist whose work explores the intersections of art, science, environmental stewardship, and human perception. Through painting, drawing, installation, and participatory projects, she investigates how mapping, data visualization, astronomy, and material culture shape our understanding of the world and our place within it.

A.V. (pronounced Ay-vee) works from Painted Foot Art Lab in downtown Wilmington, NC. She is the founder of BDG International, a curatorial exchange program dedicated to grassroots collaboration and cultural exchange, and serves as part-time Faculty in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Her current research examines light, water, atmosphere, and systems of connection, exploring the invisible boundaries that shape our ecological and social worlds.