Alexis Marino is an artist and a published illustrator working in her native city, New York. Having a perpetual fascination with the sights and sounds of her home, she finds inspiration in often overlooked vignettes, spending many years drawing en plein air and obsessively filling sketchbooks.
After two art residencies at the Chateau Orquevaux in Orquevaux, France, she began focusing on making larger pieces delving into surrealistic subject matter. In 2023, she used anatomy books as well as her own plein air reference to draw complex, humanistic forms in a distilled stage of metamorphosis and transfiguration. Her preferred mediums are BIC pens and ink on printmaking paper. In between sessions at the easel, she makes time for long bike rides and continues her en plein air practice with local artists.
Artist Statement
My experience making art tends to feel like going to the bottom of the ocean to explore a shipwreck. What I find is often unusual, strange, or unexpected. I take visual cues from fairy tales, Greek myths and music. All of the natural shapes in each piece are referenced from my own photo library and sketches that I've collected over the years. These elements culminate in a melange of past and present ideas that have been floating in my subconscious. I use art to explore themes that are typically too dark or painful to confront on a day-to-day basis such as self-destruction, rage, body horror, obsession, alienation, death and ecstasy. Through my work I hope to redefine the expectation of 'feminine' art.
Out of the Dark is my first solo exhibition, featuring a collection of large scale artworks done primarily in BIC pen. 'Waking Summer' was my first piece using this medium, however I was encouraged by fellow artists and colleagues to start working at a larger scale. Shortly afterwards, I followed this advice, creating 'My Love is a Given', thus solidifying my fixation with the medium. To create more work, I began revisiting pages of my moleskines and sketch diaries for ideas. I wanted to find some of the more interesting yet rough concepts and elevate them to finalized art works. I used Procreate to digitally 'clean up' my rough drafts, then projected these forms onto the larger paper to trace. Once I had the 'scaffolding' in place, I was able to build upon these initial concepts and fill in details. When working at a bigger scale, I continuously found the drawing process transformative as the essence of each piece crystallized. I created 'Catfish', 'All Things Considered', 'Lilith's Lantern' and 'Sea Glass' in that order.
