Alexis Smith
Born 1949, Los Angeles, California
1970 BA University of California, Irvine
Selected museum exhibitions: Pepperdine University, Malibu (2018); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2016); Miami Art Museum (2000); J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (1997); University of California, San Diego (1991); Brooklyn Museum (1987); P.S. 1, Institute for Art and Urban Resources, New York (1982); Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art (1979); Whitney Museum of American Art (1975, 1991)
Selected honors: Barnsdall Art Center (2008); Otis College of Art and Design (2001); National Endowment for the Arts (1987, 1976); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1974)
Selected public collections: J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Museum of Modern Art; Norton Family Foundation, Santa Monica; Ohio State University, Columbus; University of California, Los Angeles; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Alexis Smith is known for her meticulously crafted mixed-media works that combine images, texts, and objects. Drawing from Hollywood, advertising, and pulp fiction, she creates works that explore American culture. For Bad Day… (Christmas Eve, 1943), 1982, Smith combined a representation of a rugged cowboy, a prototypical figure of Western masculinity, with a wooden nickel within a refined frame. On this frame is inscribed “He dunked a donut in his coffee and took a bite out of half of it. ‘Men have died for less than that, Ancient One.’” Smith’s juxtapositions here are humorous and open-ended, throwing into question our myths of American identity.