Artist
Statement
As an artist, I work as
archaeologist, archivist, cartographer, collector, cultural ambassador,
experience maker, explorer, historian, voyeur, and aspiring community builder
& Renaissance woman. Methods of pseudo-anthropology are essential to my
work- manifesting in very public to very private practices.
A major, current group of works is an interactive public art project/performance entitled "The Immortalization Project", which brings together community members as participants. I invite participants to offer a nostalgic item to be Immortalized by recording and documenting the objects and their stories, sharing them with the public through various means. Through these and other interactions, observations and interpretations (sometimes misinterpretations), I make site specific work that attempts to reinvent ideas of monuments and souvenirs by celebrating the individual and community, through postcards, name cards, objects, installation, performance and video. I have been realizing this work internationally, so that participants and viewers can make a comparative, anthropological exploration. Alluding to narratives and memories (personal, collective and unfamiliar), the work navigates a space between nostalgia and invention.
Bio
Lexa Walsh is a multi-genre artist. Born near
Curriculum Vitae
Born 1968 Haverford, PA, 1986-88 Parsons School of Design
NY, NY, 1988-90 BFA California College of Arts & Crafts (CCAC)
Solo
Exhibitions, Projects & Performance
Lexa Walsh, Keys That Fit,
While I Was Awaiting You SAIR,
Weeklong Projects, Cricket Engine Gallery,
Seductive
Objects - Small Sculpture, Alta Galleria,
The Immortalization Project,
Take
a Picture with a Foreigner,
The Immortalization Project,
Greetings from
The Immortalization Project,
The Immortalization Project,
Gallery Row Unveiling,
The Immortalization Project, REX
B92 Cultural Center,
Lexa Walsh-New Work,
Galerie Vodárenská věž, C 2002
Lexa Walsh, 21Grand
Gallery,
Hidden Histories, Galerie
Vodárenská věž, Tábor, CZ 2000
Food, Galerie
Vodárenská věž, Tábor, CZ 1998
Selected Group Shows
The There, There, Esteban Sabar Gallery,
Distinctions in Drawing,
1078 Gallery,
Swee(t)Art, Red Ink
Studios, SF, CA 2007
Pinkweek, Cricket
Engine Gallery, Oakland, CA 2004-6, & Deep Gallery, Sacramento, CA 2006
Boundless Ripples & Harmonies,
Translocation-Recombination-Connection, Pier 2,
Kio-A-Thau Artist-in-Residence
Exhibition,
Women in
Art of Tea, Cricket
Engine Gallery,
Bayennale 2005,
Stuff-n-Things,
Garment Remake Exchange, Queen’s
Nails Annex,
The Future of Performance,
6th Annual Multimedial Arts Festival, Odžaci, SiM 2004
OpenhARTS,
Glass Case Exhibits by Bay Area Artists, S.F. Public
Library, San Francisco, CA 2003
Nature of Performance, Performance in
Nature, 5th Annual Multimedial Art Festival, Odžaci, SiM 2003
Performance Art Today, 4th
Annual Multimedial Art Festival, Odžaci,
Yu 2002
The Lab’s Fixed Price Art Sale and Live
Auction, The Lab, San Francisco, CA, 2002-8
Limbo II Festival, Center
for Metamedia, Plasy, CZ 1999
Residencies, Awards and Grants
Sølyst AIR, Jyderup Denmark 2008
Meet The Composer Award, 2007
Kio-A-Thau
Sugar Refinery Residence
Gunk Foundation 2004
REX Cultural Center,
CESTA; Orient to Occident Festival, Tábor, CZ
1996
Curating, Arts Administration, Writing
Curating
Cricket Engine Gallery,
Member
of administrative & curatorial team at CESTA,
an international arts and resource center whose mission is to foster tolerance
and understanding through the arts. Located in the small
Czech town of
Developed programs,
co-curated, managed and operated the annual arts festival of cross-disciplinary
collaborations, exhibitions, festivals, and artist-in-residence program;
co-managed marketing, publicity and public relations. Created
English Language program and Library Initiative among others. www.cesta.cz
Curated
music/performance series under the name Afterworld
Lounge productions in the SF Bay Area 1991-1993.
Contributing
editor & writer for Swee(t)art Magazine,
art scene 2006-present
Teaching, Lectures
Teaching
Public Art for
Overgaden
Art
Rex
Cultural Center,
Selected
Publications & Media
“Artistic Connection by
the Pier 2 Dock”, Chia-Chi Chen, ARTCO, December 2006, “Lexa Walsh- What Things
Mean” Obi Kaufmann, SWEE(t)ART, Oakland 9/06,
“Currents”, Pots, Taipei 8/06, “Art in the city” Susan Kendzulak, Taipei
Times 8/06, “The Writing is on the Wall” Charles McHale, Pots, Taipei 11/05.
“Stage, Screen & Studio” interview on Radio Taiwan International
11/05. Interviews broadcast on CTS TV,
LTN TV, UBN TV,
Music
Co-founder
of Toychestra, an all women toy instrument ensemble. Venues include galleries, clubs and schools.
Highlights include "Juvenilia" (S.F., Fall 2000) and “Bay Area
Now/Under the Radar 1” (Fall 2005) at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the
collaboration with Dan Plonsey and Fred Frith (S.F. Bay Area, May 2003-May
2004), the group's five European tours and the recent "Musiques et
Jouets" festival (Cite de la Musique, Paris, Winter 2004). The group has
five releases, three on
Member of Czech-based all women a cappella group Kačkala.
Has toured extensively in
Collaboration with Theatre of Yugen on
music for The Cycle Plays, 2007. www.thecycleplays.org
Performance Theater
Collaborated in the SF Bay Area and
Languages
English, Czech,
conversational French