Multidisciplinary artist Frances Thrasher, who creates under the name Heaven4theYoung, will have new work in ceramics, oil and watercolor on view in her second solo exhibition at ACE/FRANCISCO Gallery, opening Oct. 16 with a reception from 6–9 p.m.
In the three years since her first solo exhibition in 2022, which sold out, Thrasher has accomplished a lot and acquired new inspirations that have helped to shape where she’s at as an artist today. Her painting “Withered,” featured on this week’s cover of Flagpole, was displayed at the Lyndon House Arts Center’s 50th Juried Exhibition earlier this year. Just before that, her work entitled “Teenage Lobotomy” was featured as the album cover art for Patterson Hood’s solo release Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams. Thrasher also received a Badge of Honor from the Berlin Music Video Awards for the stop-motion film she made for Hood’s song “The Pool House.” At 20 years old, Thrasher has stacked quite a resume.
However, Thrasher is still an artist, and person, who is learning and growing—and that couldn’t be more evident in the differences between her first and second exhibitions. Understanding her personal journey as an artist helps to shine a light on these developments. Thrasher began creating art under Heaven4theYoung as a freshman at Clarke Central High School during the COVID lockdown. In her isolation, she began experimenting with watercolors and telling stories with her portraits. As she became comfortable with her style, she would spend all day practicing techniques.
“Mentally I was debating a lot of challenges with religion and just being young and dealing with adult lessons and developing those new life skills by myself. I think that’s where I came up with the name for Heaven4theYoung, because now I’ve come more to terms with what I believe in,” says Thrasher. “So I was thinking my name could just be like a collective of young women experiencing different emotions growing up, and heaven is idolized as an idea, something that can be for anyone that represents younger innocence with a joyful hope for the future.”
One of the defining characteristics of Thrasher’s work has been cute and innocent subjects juxtaposed with harsher colors and elements of gore, but in her newer works, the darkness has been subdued to undertones. She says that heaven comes with hell, and that balance is always present in life and will continue to be in her work, but there’s a hope that this transition will be more digestible to a wider audience.
This more subtle approach lends itself to the idea of the uncanny valley. Thrasher says the faces in her portraits have a distorted reflection and mirror image that has that “it’s not always what it seems” reveal. She also explains that while green grass, blue sky is often frowned upon in the art world, it’s her preferred blank canvas that further adds elements of childishness and playfulness to her eerie characters.
Thrasher recently went to Spain, where she was greatly inspired and is still processing the full extent of the trip’s impact on her works in the future. At the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid, seeing Hieronymus Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights” was an impactful experience that influenced Thrasher’s idea of the uncanny valley. However, most of her time was spent in Barcelona exploring Gaudí’s architecture and mosaics. The fine details of the buildings and decor inspired Thrasher to focus on similar details in her own work.
“The few pieces I’ve made since then have been very inspired by, like there was a chair in one of the houses, and they didn’t want us to sit on it. They had a holly branch on it so that people knew not to sit on it. I did a little painting with that, showing something’s forbidden, but they did it a prettier way instead of a sign,” says Thrasher. “Since I’ve been back, I’ve been doing some mosaics because what I saw was so interesting, and it seems so fun. I have one mosaic that’s going to be in the show, and I’m really excited about it.”
Thrasher has also done a lot of work with ceramics. In the first show, there was a regular dollhouse used to display ceramic sculptures within it, but this time around, Thrasher has painstakingly created a full dollhouse out of ceramic.
“Dollhouses were kind of a big step, but I had this idea, and I was like, ‘No, I will not let these things stop me.’ You can see where some things didn’t go as planned. There’s a crack, but I made it work. I painted gold to fill in the crack, right? It’s all a learning thing, and I think with that, I just really had an image in my head of a ceramic dollhouse. I was like, I’m going to make this happen,” says Thrasher.
In January Thrasher will start as a junior in the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia, and she plans to continue her education in sculpture and further explore mosaics. Finding community at the Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation during her college experience so far has been a valuable resource, but she’s eager to expand her art community at UGA.
“The Uncanny Valley” will be on view at ACE/FRANCISCO Gallery through Jan. 22, 2026. For more info about the opening reception and space, visit acefranciscogallery.com.
“I like when people interpret my paintings in their own way. So I think just come in with an open mind and make your own story for it, because sometimes I have my stories for it, but it’s not always obvious. So I like when other people can connect to it in different ways,” says Thrasher.
WHAT: “The Uncanny Valley” Opening Reception
WHEN: Thursday, Oct. 16, 6–9 p.m.
WHERE: ACE/FRANCISCO Gallery
HOW MUCH: FREE!
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