MICHELLE ALEXANDER

Michelle is a Canadian-born artist living and working between Montreal and Chicago. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Miami. Michelle then studied fashion design at Parsons School of Design earning an Associates’ degree in Applied Science. Michelle graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a Master of Fine Arts Degree. Her work has been exhibited in galleries at the University of Miami, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Mana Contemporary Chicago, The Current, Stowe, VT, and the Design Museum of Chicago. 

Michelle Alexander's work is about the body's response and trying to find a rational way through the irrational. Grappling with experiences of the flesh and the discomfort of fitting into one's skin, her work addresses tension. It is about the surface and associations without guidance on how to convey meaning or reveal what's hidden underneath. Michelle is unpacking a crumbling self-image and loss of personal value, trying to expel a stain from within and leave a physical impression in the space. She attempts to make visible the unseen. It is an experiential confrontation of what has been endured. She manipulates and melts images as a way of using the hands to reclaim the narrative. She takes away the precision of the images and materials themselves, devaluing them to inform the meaning. She realizes the manner in which the work is created is intertwined with the imagery produced. She sees and uses the materials as a body, as the skin, as the connections between our insider and outsider worlds. She processes through process. She fights the self, being confined by the body, being stuck in it. She remains stuck with the friction of what happened. She has objects and materials clashing up against each other. She explores what was lost and what has been left behind. She creates a space for a viewer to see themselves and be seen. Through the work, questions are asked but answers are not given.