Institutional Conversation in the Domestic Setting: An Interview with Ayla Rexroth

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Ayla Rexroth, director and founder of Subterranean Gallery. Rexroth graduated in 2010 from KCAI with a BFA in Painting. Her work, largely comments on feminine roles within society and the superficiality of the institutional setting. Currently, Rexroth works as a teacher and curator, alongside maintaining “SUB.”

Subterranean Gallery is an apartment gallery, which serves as the space in which Rexroth lives and works. She began the massive undertaking of developing the once shabby basement apartment, into the white walled space it is today, during the last half of her senior year at KCAI. My grades began to slip, Rexroth confessed, because my teachers no longer saw me constantly in my little white box. The importance of building community connections outside one’s institution and creating alternative spaces for critique are of strong importance to Rexroth when undertaking projects for SUB. Past projects include One Night Stand— an over-night gallery stay and morning critique— and The Hot Tub Dialogues— a lecture series taking place in a hot tub installed in the gallery. Each set up is very elaborate, requiring weeks of non-stop work to prepare for, and taking advantage of the incredibly unique space. The gallery benefits from its domestic floor plan, pipe lined walls and kitchenette by using these attributes, alongside its sets, to transcend its visitors to a space that is seemingly quaint yet somewhat fantastical.

In developing Subterranean Gallery, Rexroth was motivated by the desire for a less formal critique setting, and was responding to the divides that form within artistic institutions. When asked about her initial motivation Rexroth remarked, I was interested in tripping up the institutional dynamic. What would happen if I where to a throw a wrench [in the system]? SUB is meant to overthrow the formality and competitiveness within an institutional setting. On a deeper level, SUB’s mission is quite feminist in that its aim is to take male dominated subject matter and place it within a domestic space. Rexroth’s frustration developed in regard to the male dominated field of modernism of which she wished to provide “feminine” influence. I wanted to take this [modernist aesthetic] and high contemporary conversation and place it within a domestic setting, Rexroth explained.

Rexroth reiterates her encouragement for students to get out into the community and outside of their institution— on more than just one night of the month. However, she definitely acknowledges how institutional education benefited her. I always say I would never trade what I learned [at KCAI] for anything. Because of KCAI’s influence on the local art community the institution’s critiques helped structure the way in which critiques functioned within SUB. Rexroth went on to explain, The informal setting created a relaxed and supportive environment, but was also aimed at eliminating the “great job!” type comments that an art exhibition evokes. [At SUB] viewers got to “sleep on it” and talk with the artists after processing their experience with the work.

Within Rexroth’s own artistic practice she believes that her role as curator and artist go hand in hand. As we get older there is a pressure to specialize, Rexroth commented with subtle frustration, As kids we do everything…by age 30 [society wants] us to choose a path. As an artist, curator and teacher Rexroth’s dynamic abilities have landed her in a position that is both artistically and educationally relevant, as well as beneficial to the local arts community and institutions.

 -Juliana

-photos provided by Ayla Rexroth-