Never Odd or Even

Eleanor Harwood Gallery, San Francisco, CA.

November 5 - December 17, 2016.

Eleanor Harwood Gallery is pleased to present Never Odd or Even, a solo exhibition by Alexis Anne Mackenzie.

Using un-retouched found images which have been enlarged, or are pages taken directly from vintage books, Mackenzie physically reworks, interweaves, and overlays images, resulting in her own highly personalized interpretations. In contrast to the imagery of composed floral arrangements used in previous work, the content in Never Odd or Even turns to the wild and un-staged.

In Set to Rise, the interweaving of a nude woman in a single split gesture and waves at sunset creates an image of a woman simultaneously bowing to the thrashing tides while absorbing the power of the sun and fire in her belly. Mackenzie's image represents both her subjects vulnerability to and the harnessing of larger forces. Using photographs of the human body and nature which, in their original contexts, were intended to simply illustrate places and things, Mackenzie seeks to instill the images with a heightened degree of emotional response for the viewer. She prompts this response by creating an intersection of a person and a place; a state of being. Similarly, she also manipulates single images within themselves as a commentary on the malleability and fallibility of perception and the ways in which our minds can distort and filter reality through our own personal lens.

Working within strict, self-imposed guidelines, Mackenzie attempts to push the limits of reinterpretation, distortion, and mirroring, using only overlaid imagery or reworking a single image, without digital intervention or duplication of a single image. The images are purposefully un-retouched, an extension of her own personal beliefs about the acceptance of things we cannot change. And yet, each image has been carefully manipulated - an allegory for working with what one is given in life and conviction that life's imperfections contribute to beauty and growth in all things.

Ghosting

Voidoid Archive, Glasgow, UK.

June 2015.

The collages in Ghosting are a continuation of Mackenzie's works over the past two years, during which time she has been experimenting with overlaid imagery and the physical reworking of original images cut from books, attempting to push the limits of reinterpretation and distortion sans duplication.

Multiverse

Eleanor Harwood Gallery, San Francisco, CA.

February 28 - April 11, 2015.

Alexis Anne Mackenzie's new show Multiverse explores how minor fluctuations in circumstance, or a slight rearrangement of the same elements, can create a wholly different entity. The term 'multiverse' is the blanket term for parallel universe theories.

Most of Mackenzie's work over the past year has investigated living a sort of double or split life. The new direction in her work started with Synthesis: her project-space show at EHG less than a year ago. We are delighted to be showing more of her new works.

As Mackenzie delves deeper into the new direction of her work, she is thinking in larger terms, moving from just the personal sphere to a consideration of how we all have multiple facets of our lives, and about how so many things that we do and experience hinge on chance encounters, forks in the road, choices, and risk taking. She is playing with the idea of trusting the universe, as it were, then considering what so doing entails.

The exhibit is comprised of diptychs and single original images that have been altered to be unrecognizable from their original selves. The diptychs are two images that are combined to create one clear and one "scrambled" version. Sometimes the diptychs are created out of three images. One image is cut and layered over two others, representing how the same exact image will manifest differently depending on circumstance.

Mackenzie wants these works to speak to the parts of ourselves that reflect on where we are in our lives and how we got here. She posits that one reason people are interested in parallel universe theories is that these theories appeal to the parts of ourselves that have made mistakes or missed opportunities. Conversely these theories also resonate with the parts of ourselves that are grateful for the path we've taken or the luck we've enjoyed. These theories, and by extension the work in her new show, acknowledge how malleable we are as people, and how random "fate" can be.

Interference

Ampersand Gallery, Portland, OR.

June 3-June 22, 2014.

Ampersand is pleased to present Interference, a solo exhibition of collages by Alexis Anne Mackenzie.

As with Drift, her previous exhibition at the gallery, the source imagery for this new body of work is botanical, in this case photographic documentation of wildflowers and colorful Ikebana floral arrangements. However, whereas the meandering cutting and placement technique of Drift resulted in works that resembled topographic maps, erosion lines or the skeletal remains of some unknown creature, the precise linear splices and mirrored alternating arrangements in Interference are more restrained and push the boundaries of redefining an image within the confines of its original self.

We see the semblance of botanical forms echoed by something like the central plane of a mirror surface or agitated inside a reflection on rippled water. Each part (or splice) of the original specimen is contained in the new piece, but it seems as though information has been lost or is incomplete, much in the same way that static interference scrambles images on television screens. It's as though we are looking at a single moment in the process of a form rearranging itself. A new, undefined pattern is in the process of emerging, a new life is about to begin.

Synthesis

Eleanor Harwood Gallery, San Francisco, CA.

April 3 - May 10, 2014.

Alexis Anne Mackenzie’s collages, composed of multiple images sliced and spliced back together in an overlay that marries the outline of forms from both images, can be understood like a film editor’s work, weaving disparate scenes into a story. The intricacy of the artist’s technique is offset by the minimalist composition, achieving a beauty and fragility in the pairing. The show’s title, Synthesis, references this merging of two things, as well as a plant’s natural process of conversion, a theme of change and growth particularly relevant to the artist as she prepares for an overseas move. 

Drift

Ampersand Gallery, Portland, OR.

November 29, 2012 - January 6, 2013.

Ampersand is pleased to present Drift, an exhibition of collage work by Portland artist Francesca Berrini and San Francisco artist Alexis Mackenzie.

Both artists, in divergent and dynamic ways, deconstruct not only the physical materials they work with, but also common notions of cartography, political division, taxonomy, elemental erosion and the very visible impact of human activity on built and natural environments.

Exploring a new direction in her work, Mackenzie's recent collages resemble topographic maps and visual signs of erosion in nature itself. "I see natural processes echoed in the way I work with photographs," notes Mackenzie, "breaking down the image structure, working against the existing shapes and forms to gradually wear them away completely." Cyclical erosion, however, always results in new forms, a notion that expands upon Mackenzie's working practice wherein the process of collage is a continuation of the life cycle of discarded paper materials. With titles like Lilium Auratum and Erythronium Hendersoni, there is a visible dissonance between the finished work and the scientific name of the source image, implying that taxonomy itself is as susceptible to shifts as the natural world it attempts to define.

In a similar way, Francesca Berrini's reconstructed maps draw attention to ever shifting global divisions and the arbitrary borders mankind has historically etched across the face of the Earth. "The colorful geometry of political divisions," writes Berrini, "laid over the organic forms of continents, is as incongruous in appearance as our actual physical interventions in the natural world. My inward exploration of political concepts made manifest in fictional landscapes parallels the original intent of the materials I repurpose in their scientific desire to chart and document the world." Comprised of thousands of individual pieces of torn and reconstituted found maps, her works are richly textured groupings of non-existent land masses, rivers, veins of transportation and city landscapes. Like Mackenzie, Berrini's seamless command of her medium creates a cartographic illusion equal to the natural world we by turns marvel at and attempt to destroy.

Head, Heart, Hands

Starter Galeria, Warsaw, Poland.

November 2012.

Artist’s Statement: For these works I was experimenting with the idea of impossible bouquets, building structures and using plants that would typically never be found in a real bouquet. These ideas stem directly from my previous works using botanicals to build words and letters, except here, they are simply shapes.

For me, these collages are bit of a foray into the absurd, rather than attempting transcendental phrasing. I do feel they still address concepts of things which are personally significant; objects and plants and personal space, and the items we surround ourselves with to outwardly reflect our inner worlds.

The “cacteye” subset addresses the tendency to project memories and associations onto personal objects and even anthropomorphize them.

Look Alive

KRETS. Malmö, Sweden.

April 28 - May 27, 2012.

The majority of the works shown at KRETS are based on the silhouettes that remain when the artist cuts out images from book pages. The outer lines of these figures are then placed on other images and creates a resonance between overlooked negative spaces made visible.

Look Alive works are created in a characteristic technique of the artist, floral elements arranged into compositions that make up words and phrases. The characters are subtly incorporated into the pictures, but appear after a moment's consideration. Using photographic elements instead of only illustrated material creates a very different expression than in her earlier works. Also new are still-life elements - to mix objects and artifacts that often represent prevailing aesthetic and cultural ideals. Books, sculptures, vases and extravagant floral bouquets; markers of status, wealth, intellect and identity.

Throughout Look Alive is an exploration of inner worlds and how they are transmitted and projected onto the visible world. All collages are created by hand - cut out from books and carefully assembled as unobtrusively as possible and without obvious seams. The intention is to depict the world as somewhat flawed but beautiful - a shining place with a contrasting dark side.

Bloom & Gloom

Swarm Gallery, Oakland, CA.

January 2011.

Alexis Mackenzie's work is hand-composed from books she's been collecting over the years. Each piece is painstakingly pieced together as seamlessly as possible. They create themselves through a process beginning with a loose concept, followed by a series of trials and errors, subtle maneuvers, selection, elimination, harmonious unions, and happy accidents. It is a meditative process, with a great deal of decision-making behind each element.

The work for Bloom & Gloom is created using paper silhouettes remaining from the extracted images she uses in her other collage works. Moving outward to build lines, these non-figurative works are an interpretation of visual impressions; only the sense of how things appear, and the silent reverberations of intellectual and emotional associations with objects, surroundings, and encounters.

Alexis intends to portray the world as a flawed thing of beauty - a place that shines brightly, and has a dark side to match. Each work in the exhibition is at once identifiable and ambiguous, inviting the viewer's own imaginations and experiences to inform their interpretation.

All the Colors of the Dark

EBERSMOORE. Chicago.

April 3 - May 22, 2010.

The exhibition, titled “All the Colors of the Dark” will be the artist’s first solo exhibition at EBERSMOORE. Her work, known for being seamless in its craft, has recently become interwoven with intricate typography. Sometimes direct, other times quite hidden, she considers them to be "simulacrum of things which sometimes have no real shape". The collages for this exhibit are based on film titles from the giallo genre; composed primarily of botanical & biological elements, each piece leaves much to be discovered.

Dreaming Is Easy

POVevolving Gallery. Los Angeles. 2010

March 13 - April 8, 2010.

We are pleased to announce an exhibition of beautiful hand-cut collages by Alexis Mackenzie. The exhibition, titled “Dreaming is Easy,” will be the artist’s second one person exhibition at POVevolving. Her new work is just as seamless in its craft and similar in its aesthetic, however, the work has slowly become interwoven with intricate typography. Sometimes direct, other times quite hidden, each piece in this current show leaves much to be discovered.

Artist’s Statement: The phrases in these collages are multi-tiered and double-sided; intended to reflect a sort of personal and societal inertia of mind and lifestyle, both in the sense of being frozen, and moving too fast in a direction to change course. I wanted them to be about states of mind and being, in terms of personal and global events; things that happen on a day-to-day basis and things that happen over the courses of our lives. They’re about the decisions we make, and the twists of fate we encounter. They are intended to reflect the multifaceted moments of joy and anxiety, nostalgia and anticipation, which are part of being alive. I wanted them to be open to interpretation as either uplifting, or melancholy.

Disguising these messages as strangely grafted, twisted plantlife works for me in the sense that, the themes I’m addressing are composed of so many different elements; moments, feelings, and phases of life will shift, grow, die, be confusing, complicated, intangible, and difficult to put into words, along with our memories of them and the events connected to them. Creating the phrases as landscapes, or specimens of wildlife, was sort of like isolating an aspect of our internal environments.

I see them essentially as simulacrum of things that sometimes have no real shape.

Never Be Sad

Park Life. San Francisco.

June, 2009.

Park Life is pleased to announce our next art exhibition featuring the work of Alexis Anne Mackenzie. This show marks Mackenzie’s first solo exhibition at Park Life and will feature all new work. 

Alexis Mackenzie’s dreamlike collages intertwine the style of early 1900’s Dadaist Max Ernst with a strong botanical element to create strangely powerful scenarios. Benign elements such as flowers, human and animal figures, and other assorted Victoriana graft together symbiotically in tableaux which seem to deal simultaneously with both evolution and entropy. The resulting images pay homage to the Surrealist importance of the subconscious, where the meaning is left deliberately ambiguous.