Steve Alexis

Student Artist-in-Residence 2019-20
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Artist Statement

Abstraction is a response to the rapid changes of our world, that is driven by the current state of continual technological advancement.  Individual expression rouses societal and technology development, in effect that same development influences the expression of the individual.  Abstraction lies outside he bounds of the identifiable and mimetic, by which the sentiment and concepts being communicated, hold greater importance than the presence of recognizable aspects in the work.

I create objects to convey emotion, emphasize the process of making, and portray a sense of the instinctual nature of my work.  The use of intuitive actions and unconscious responses serves as a connection-to the lifestyle of our early common ancestors, the iterations of humanoid creatures that modern humans evolved from.  The expression of their feelings and ideas came from a place of innate decision making.  Their speech existed along cave walls and in stone carvings, aided by their nascent forms technology.  I seek to convey a similar form of visceral expression through the mediums of metal, plastic, and polymers.  The materials allow for the recording of the making process, vividly capturing the physical alterations applied to them, conveying the actions guided by the subconscious mind.  These objects serve as a vehicle of actualization and physical embodiments of sentiment, by which the viewer and I can become aware and respond to them.