Alexis McGrigg, an MSA visual arts 2007 graduate, recently presented to a group of junior and senior students while on campus as part of the Guest Artist Residency program. The two-day stay (Nov. 14-15, 2022) included a series of workshops and classes.
After graduating from Mississippi School of the Arts, Alexis continued her education at Mississippi State University, obtaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2012 and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Texas Tech in 2017.
Alexis is a contemporary artist who explores themes of blackness, space, spirituality, identity, and collective consciousness. She uses painting, drawing, transmedia, and installation. She integrates poetry, sound, and performance in her practice.
Alexis employs an interdisciplinary approach to examine these concepts, utilizing painting, drawing, transmedia, and installation. Her choice of materials greatly impacts the visual language she is able to achieve within a work. For example, her paintings utilize layers of rich fabric dyes that have soaked into drenched watercolor paper and canvas. The many layers of dye allow her to push into the surface imagery, creating depth and what she thinks of as an opening into the picture plane. Similarly, the use of layers in her experimental videos imply what can be construed as a portal or expansive opening into an alternate world. While the method of application may differ, the concepts and exploration remain the same, linking a visual thread through the chosen media.
Her artwork is included in several private collections and has been featured in exhibitions across the U.S. and internationally in New York, NY, New Orleans, LA, Chicago, IL, Las Vegas, NV, and Oakland, CA – most recently in her solo exhibition The Labour of Being at Almine Rech Gallery, Paris, France, and The Ether – Journey In Between at Richard Beavers Gallery; group exhibitions, SAY IT LOUD at Christie’s Auction House, Salon de Peinture at Almine Rech, NY, and LIGHT at the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (CICA) in South Korea.
McGrigg’s next exhibition is a solo event in Brussels, Germany.
More at https://www.alexismcgrigg.com/