Ashley Longshore

Early life

Sarah Ashley Longshore was born in Montgomery, Alabama to Spencer Longshore III, the president and CEO of Time and Space Inc., an advertising sales company. She was exposed to the arts as a child and took lessons in tap dancing, ballet, theatre, piano, jazz, and voice. Following her graduation from Brenau Academy, an all-girl boarding school located in Gainesville, Georgia, Longshore obtained a bachelor of arts in English literature from the University of Montana.

Longshore taught herself how to paint while attending the University of Montana, and spent much of her early career reproducing Picasso paintings.

Career

While a student at the University of Montana, Longshore took a semester off to paint. The self-taught artist put together a portfolio and began showing her work to galleries around Missoula, Montana. Her first art show was at a small town gallery.

In 2011, Longshore’s artwork was featured in the film Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1.

Longshore’s collection entitled “Sugar Face” opened at La Boîte à Epice, a New York City-based spice store and art gallery owned by chef Lior Lev Seracarz in March 2012. Later that year, Longshore was commissioned by Chloé to create a painting that depicted the fashion house’s history. The painting was displayed at an event to celebrate their 60th Anniversary at Art Basel Miami.

In September 2013, Longshore held a pop-up art exhibition entitled “Fashionably Late” at the Pop Up Art Gallery in New York City. The showing was held after New York’s Fashion Week 2013. She was also among eleven artists featured at Art Inside, an October 2013 exhibition at the Baur au Lac in Zurich, Switzerland. The exhibition was curated by Gigi Kracht, who sits on the International Director’s Council of New York City’s Guggenheim Museum.

Longshore was featured on Vogue.com in Spring 2014. Longshore spoke about Instagram as an emerging platform for art sales. Longshore involves her fans through social media, engaging them in her creative process. She avoids the traditional gallery system, which charges artists to display their work.

Forbes referred to Longshore as a leading business woman of the South in September 2014. In October of the same year, The New York Post featured Longshore in an article about her "Greed, Money and Status" series, which showcases and symbolizes American consumerism and luxury. The series included a remake of the American Gothic painting, portraits of Gordon Gekko and Alec Baldwin's character in Glengarry Glen Ross, and a chair which was stuffed with $500,000 in shredded cash. In 2015, Longshore sold over $1 million worth of art. CUE Magazine recognized Longshore as a New Orleans Style Maker in 2016. In August 2016, Longshore's office and studio was featured on Elle Decor. Longshore partnered with fashion brand Cle de Peau and designed a line of home goods in 2016. In February 2017, she released her first book You Don't Look Fat, You Look Crazy: An Unapologetic Guide to Being Ambitchous, as "tongue-in-cheek guide to living an "ambitchous" life".

Artwork

Longshore’s art has been exhibited in America and Europe. Her work has been featured in magazines such as Forbes, Elle, Vogue, Marie Claire Belgium, Elle Décor Belgium, Vie Magazine, SPUR, Hollywood Reporter, and Matchbook Magazine. Art New Orleans featured a Longshore painting on the cover of its Spring 2013 issue and Vie Magazine featured her art on the cover of its May 2013 issue.

In 2014, Longshore announced a collaboration with friend and long-time client Blake Lively for Lively's lifestyle e-commerce site Preserve. Longeshore and Lively began working together at Longshore's studio shortly before Lively's site launched. Longshore was one of the first featured artisans on the site. Her pillows were one of the top items on the site as featured by Elle Decor and Vogue. That same year, Longshore created an art series called “Tantrum,” which included a depiction of the Vogue editor-in-chief watching screaming children. Later that year, she created a holiday exhibit for Kirna Zabete featuring “Jingle My Bells.” Kirna Zabete has 20 pieces of Longshore’s work exhibited. In 2015, Longshore was featured by Forbes on a list of 21 contemporary artists. That same year, Longshore’s work was also featured at the Cornell Museum in an exhibit titled “Bling: Art That Shines.” The collection included Longshore’s large-scale portraits highlighting celebrity excess. Her pieces “Audrey in Slipper Orchid Headdress” and “Subtleties Are Not Her Specialty” were among the featured works in the exhibit. In 2015, Longshore launched Artgasm, a direct-to-collector subscription program inspired by TuneCore, in which 250 members receive four pieces of art by Longshore a year for a fee.

In fall 2015, Longshore debuted a collection of satirical fashion portraits during New York Fashion Week. She became the first artist to secure a collaboration with the Bryant Park Hotel with a Longshore-designed suite featuring the collection of seven bold portraits of iconic names in fashion.

Personal life

Longshore lives in New Orleans with her fiancée Michael Smith. She has a younger sister named Allyson. Allyson is a Fashion Stylist based in New York City and founder of Stylestudio Blake Lively met Longshore at her studio in New Orleans in 2010. Lively credits Longshore with teaching her how to paint. Longshore's work frequently appears on Lively's Instagram account.