Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexis Pye.
Hi Alexis, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I always doodled, always been a way to cope and to get down my thoughts. My practice grew bigger when I went to art school at first I went to Bowling Green State University in Ohio, I then transferred in 2016 to Houston University. I came with a strong sense of foundations but what I fond in Houston was a community, while leaving one I gained another.
I found myself working in institutions such as the CAMH and MFAH in the gift shop, giving tours and Preparations. That led me to access to shows and people to learn from and eventually became my community too. Through residencies and teaching, I became more well rounded and gave back through working in education.
Two shows got me on the map and got me where I am today is Everything’s Gonna Be Alright curated by Robert Hodge at David Shelton Gallery in 2019 and Animal Crossing curated by Dana Frankfort and Jackie Gendale at Inman Gallery in 2020. These shows gave me an opportunity to show my work outside of the Country and I even got featured in a catalogue in Dutch. Also lead me to the gallery representation that I have today at Inman Gallery.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I try to be honest about my life style, I’m sort of a bohemian. I have had to make my puzzle of jobs to feed the practice, I have had multiple jobs and now I am about to be a student again. I try to take my time and keep the anxieties at bay and I can’t say I’m alway successful . Has it been a smooth road?…….short answer, No, but I can say it was a road with many forks in the roads, pauses and detours. The road is still unpaved and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My work places Black people in a mythic limbo shaped by layered truths, dreams, and alternate realities. A lore that is grounded by inherited histories, misheard sayings and pop culture. This world is both imagined and deeply personal, inviting viewers to reimagine their idea of Blackness in the Western world. Through it, I aim to lay the foundation for a new art history; one that honors complexity and contradiction. I use this space to explore my own emotional debt, revealing the tension between lived reality and the contradiction of the fabrication of Black life. The figures I depict often inhabit landscapes that are hazy and abstracted, reflecting the restlessness inherent to marginalized persons in times of unrest. In this moment where fundamental liberties are stripped away, Black people continue to do what they have always done: live. Choosing joy is powerful, but also exhausting. That joy is often laced with sadness, and that tension fuels my practice. Through a sense of peculiarity I ask my practice to exist in a plane between reality and the make believe. Opposing concepts coexist in my work as a visual rebellion against monolithic ideas of Black culture. The contrast of the expressive brush strokes and the clunkyness of the black oil stick differs from traditional painting. My practice is one that does not take itself too seriously, and asks the viewer to enter through the low and find itself in the high.
I’m proud of the diversity who interact with the work, people feel connected to it both in academia and in everyday.
I don’t know if its up to me to tell people what sets me apart from others. People seem to gravitate to the work and I try not to ask too many questions.
What’s next?
Well I just moved to Evanston, a city that is an hour from Chicago for school. I will be attending Northwestern’s Art, Theory and Practice Program. The change feels good, yet sad at the same time. I’ve alway wanted to make roots in the Midwest and I have been moving all my life. It’s nice to be closer to family and to have seasons, I will miss my humid bike rides in Houston and the people I have grown so close to.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.inmangallery.com/artists/68-alexis-pye/overview/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pyealexis
Image Credits
Frank Xavier (portrait of the artist)
https://www.instagram.com/the_creativex?stkn=aWF0aGo5OGo2cnU0
Artwork image credit:Thomas R. DuBrock
