Alexis Day | Gravid: Tides of Becoming
November 7 - December 7, 2024
First Thursday Reception: Thursday, November 7, 2024
Elizabeth Leach Gallery is pleased to present Gravid: Tides of Becoming, an exhibition of recent mixed media works by Alexis Day.
Elizabeth Leach Gallery is pleased to present new mixed media works by Alexis Day in Gravid: Tides of Becoming. This is the artists’ third solo show at the gallery and will run from November 7 - December 7, 2024.
In Gravid: Tides of Becoming, Day extends her interest of creating mixed media works that amalgamate personal photographs with fabric substrates, hand stitching, paint and other unexpected materials like reflective mirrors, sequins and beads. Fleeting figures and line drawings made with thread can be found embedded amongst the curious grounds of these image/objects.
The foundational imagery of interior and exterior sites were all visited and captured by the artist herself; Day takes photographs throughout her day-to-day life of scenes, objects, and places that trigger her to think of memory, time, perception, and the female experience. The locations have both intimate and aesthetic meaning, and with the depiction of spiraling staircases and Escher-like architecture, these stunning works make for an optically curious puzzle that is rewarded by close study and mean to communicate a story of transition and transformation. Together, the seascapes depicting driftwood, seaweed, and gorse with their circular shapes and transitional forms, spin a tale that speaks to the inexorable bookends of life and death. Here, Day also explores her personal journey and the collective experience of transitioning to motherhood—the joy and trauma, relief and loneliness, fierce love and loss of identity that come with pregnancy and parenting.
The currency of domestic labor is also a theme suggested by the intricate techniques and processes of up-cycling clothing and fabric sourced from loved ones and family members throughout her lifetime, imbuing things made by the hand with even more touch. Day’s background in psychology led her to blend that scholarship with a studio practice which explores the subjective nature of perception, a topic she has been probing since at least 2019 when she earned her MFA from Pacific Northwest College of Art, in addition to her degree in psychology from University of Oregon in 2010. Though modestly scaled, Day’s work has an enormous presence; her careful juxtaposition of science and art challenging the position of craft within the spectrum of fine art.
Alexis Day is a Portland-based artist, originally from the coastal town of Bandon, Oregon. Using her background in psychology, she investigates the impact of perception and memory on individual and cultural identity. Day earned an MFA in Visual Studies from Pacific Northwest College of Art in 2019, a BS in Art Practices from Portland State University in 2016, and a BS in Psychology from the University of Oregon in 2010. Recent exhibitions include Day’s solo show, Schemata: Dissonance and Distortion, at the Rose Center for the Arts (Longview, WA), Passages: Visual Stories of Liminal Places, Chehalem Cultural Center (Newberg, OR), and Putting it Together 2, at the Foundry (St. Charles, MO). In 2020 and 2022, Day was an artist-in-residence at the Studios of Mass MoCA (North Adams, MA). Elizabeth Leach Gallery began representing Day’s work in 2020.