Elizabeth Alexander
Tracey Morgan Gallery is pleased to present our first solo exhibition with multimedia artist Elizabeth Alexander. Please join us for a reception for the Artist on Saturday, August 16 from 6-8PM.
Pulling from a wide array of source materials, Alexander recontextualizes objects traditionally associated with domesticity such as wallpaper, upholstered furniture, and porcelain ware, probing at the societal, historical, and personal meanings embedded within. Her meticulously rendered works reveal the many contradictions lurking beneath the surface of lovely, docile appearances.
The title of the exhibition, taken from a poem by Mary Oliver, describes the feeling of relief when a storm is visible, but distant. Like the poem, there is evidence of time passing and changing the contents of this show: figures sit idly in images while they dissolve, porcelain tableware is worn down into delicate shells, floral decor is dying before one’s eyes. Alexander blends scavenged domestic forms and floral decor with cast storm debris to imbue objects of order and comfort with the unpredictability and slow evolution of the natural world. Within these 'beautiful disasters' she works to bring forth the increasing vulnerability within our surroundings often hidden among the pleasantries. Her work envisions the humanity embedded within our surroundings and uncovers the porousness of our walls and the interconnectivity we often forget (or ignore) is there.
Elizabeth Alexander holds degrees in sculpture from the Cranbrook Academy, MFA, and Massachusetts College of Art, BFA, where she discovered the complex nature of dissecting objects of nostalgia. Her work has exhibited across the country at institutions including the Museum of Art and Design, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Southeast Center for Contemporary Art, the Nasher Museum at Duke University, and the Currier Museum. It is included in permanent collections at the Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, AR; Fidelity; and the Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC. She is currently an Associate Professor and the Sculpture Department Coordinator at Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, MA.