Ashley Wiard

Ashley Wiard is a contemporary painter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Wiard earned her B.F.A. from Columbus State University in 2017 and attended the Summer Undergraduate Residency Program at the New York Academy of Art on a merit scholarship. Her work has been exhibited at Women Made Gallery in Chicago, the Ilges Gallery in Columbus, GA, the New York Academy of Art, and in solo and group exhibitions in the Southeast. She has also created public art projects and received numerous awards and scholarships for her work. Alongside her studio practice, Wiard built a career in financial technology. Building complex financial products has become an important part of her broader creative life, strengthening her interest in human behavior, systems, problem solving, and the often-unseen structures that shape people's experiences. After several years in which her professional career took greater focus, Wiard returned to the studio with a more personal and psychologically driven approach to painting. At the center of her practice is an interest in the experiences we carry quietly: the things that change us, remain with us, and resist simple explanation.