ARTIST STATEMENT
I investigate the potential of paper pulp to record touch and create intimacy, much as a handwritten letter does, by offering a space for emotional connection to the viewer. During complex political times such as these, introspection and tactility feel necessary to counterbalance the fast-paced digital culture where information can be lost in the glossiness of a flattened image. Hapticity – a cross-disciplinary phenomenon that explains how visual perceptions translate into internal experiences and feelings – draws us into the body, beyond surface encounters. I began working with paper to engage in such a sensory experience.
My works are as much about painting as they are about sculpture, referencing hues from fleeting, everyday moments like crumbling sidewalks, dusk, bruised fruit, or flushed cheeks. I see these inspirations of color as events and I am invested in how color and texture can activate emotion, connecting to both our inward and outward experience, and creating meaning in our existence. My sculptures evoke tension, awkwardness, anxiety, loss, and pleasure.
BIO
Alexis Granwell (b. 1981, New York) is an artist who investigates the potential of pulp to record touch and create intimacy, exploring the psychological and bodily characteristics of our built and natural environments. She has exhibited her sculptures and works on paper widely both nationally and internationally. Granwell earned her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in 2007. She received her BFA (magna cum laude) in painting with a minor in art history from Boston University in 2003. She has participated in exhibitions at The American University Art Museum at The Katzen Art Center, Washington DC; The Weatherspoon Museum, Greensboro, NC; Schau Fenster, Berlin, Germany; BravinLee Programs, New York, NY; Underdonk, New York, NY; Field Projects, New York, NY; Ortega y Gasset, New York, NY; A.I.R. Gallery, New York, NY; Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Museum, Philadelphia, PA; Fjord Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; Mana Contemporary, Chicago, IL; Tiger Strikes Asteroid LA, Los Angeles, CA; Bryan Miller Gallery, Houston, TX; Mono Practice, Baltimore, MD; Hemphill Gallery, Washington DC; SUNY, Old Westbury, NY; Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA; Towson University, Baltimore, MD; and Europos Parkas Museum, Vilnius, Lithuania. She has upcoming exhibitions in Mexico City and Gilleleje, Denmark.
In 2015, Granwell was awarded an Independence Foundation Fine Arts Fellowship. Through this grant, she attended a residency at Dieu Donné in New York, NY a premier experimental lab dedicated to the intersection of paper pulp and contemporary art making. She has been awarded residencies at I-Park Foundation, AS220, Ragdale, and Jentel. Her work has been reviewed in Hyperallergic, Sculpture Magazine, Studio International, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, The Globe and Mail, Two Coats of Paint, Maake Magazine, Title Magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Art F City.
A professor of sculpture, drawing, and graduate studies, Granwell currently teaches at The University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. From 2013 to 2018, she co-directed Tiger Strikes Asteroid Philadelphia, a collective of which she has been a member since its founding in 2009. She lives and works in Philadelphia, PA.