Lexa Walsh is a multi-genre artist. Born in
As
an artist, I work as collector, archivist, archaeologist, historian, voyeur and experience maker. Methods of pseudo-anthropology
are essential to my work- manifesting in very public to very private practices.
Public:
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. I attempt to reinvent ideas of monuments and souvenirs
by celebrating the individual and community, through postcards, name cards,
objects, installation and video. I have been realizing this work
internationally, so that a comparative, anthropological exploration can be made
by participants and viewers. As a cultural observer, I interpret (sometimes
misinterpret) ideas, objects and images I explore through my travels.
Private:
Entering a dark yet humorous side of girlhood, I manipulate lost, forgotten or
discarded clothing, toys and artifacts as well as mass-produced, often
'feminine' items with obsessive processes of cutting, wax-dipping, sorting,
bundling, packaging and sewing. The resulting fetishes are both abject and
seductive. Many of my materials act as residue and artifact revealing what one
has worn, used and washed, much like garbage proves what one has consumed.
Alluding to narratives and memories (personal, collective and unfamiliar), the
work navigates a space between nostalgia and invention.
Curriculum Vitae
Born 1968 Haverford, PA,
1986-88 Parsons School of Design NY, NY, 1988-90 BFA With Distinction
California College of Arts & Crafts (CCAC)
Lexa
Walsh: 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
Dirty Laundry, Installation in collaboration with
Shari Robertson, Pivovar, Tábor,
CZ 1997
Selected Group Shows
Wish You Were Here, San Francisco City/Space, SF, CA 2007
Distinctions in Drawing, 1078 Gallery,
Swee(t)Art, Red Ink Studios,
SF, CA 2007
Overhung.., Boontling Gallery,
Boundless Ripples & Harmonies,
Translocation-Recombination-Connection, Pier 2,
Pinkweek, Cricket
Engine Gallery, Oakland, CA 2006, 2005, 2004, & Deep Gallery, Sacramento,
CA 2006
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,
Post-Postcard,
The Lab,
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
Limbo II Festival, Center
for Metamedia, Plasy, CZ
1999
Total Refuse: An Installation Of Recent Detritus, Total Mobile Home
Micro Cinema, S.F., CA 1994
CCAC at
The Lab’s Fixed Price Art Sale and
Live Auction, The Lab, San Francisco, CA, 2002-7
Night Moves, New Langton’s
19th Annual Art Auction, New Langton Arts,
Vis-á-Vis Artlab,
Meet The Composer Award, 2007
Kio-A-Thau Sugar Refinery Residence
Gunk Foundation 2004
REX Cultural Center,
CESTA–
3-week residency to work collaboratively for Orient to Occident Festival, Tábor, CZ
1996
Selected
Performance
Foghorn, Theatre
7 Festival, Tábor, CZ, 2002
Sand, Brick and Bones, Performance
directed by George Cremaschi, New Langton
Arts, San Francisco, CA, 2001
W-2 We Want You, Directed
by Krista Denio, 848 Community Space,
Moom Pitcher, LIVE
ART LAB Festival, Performance in
collaboration with George Cremaschi, The Lab, S.F.,
CA, 2000
Theater Parapet, Strop, Performance
with
Tábor, CZ, Castle
at Mala Loka, SLO, 1999
Moving Target Series, Performance
in collaboration with George Cremaschi,
Borderbend Series,
Performance in collaboration with George Cremaschi,
Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA, 1999
I'm So Sorry Mr. Shakespeare, But This
Is Life, Performance directed by Alena
Blahová, 1998
in collaboration with Petra Podlahová and musical duo Sabot, European Tour
Dream Factory, Collaborative
performance, Forbidden Fruits of Civil Society Festival, Pivovar,
Tábor, CZ, 1997
Cake Walk, Performance
with Better Hose and Garters, 848 Community Space, San Francisco, CA, 1997
Let's Make A Wheel, Orient
to Occident Festival, performance
with BHG in collaboration, 1996
with Tunnektusuksus (E), CESTA, Tábor,
CZ, and Orient to Occident West,
Trashin' Fashion, Sacramento
Fringe Festival, installation and
performance with BHG,
This is a Stick Up, a
site-specific interaction with BHG, Beanbenders
Series, Berkeley Store Gallery,
Play Me, performance
with BHG, E-Space Gallery,
The Bald Soprano, performance
with BHG, Anomalous Gallery,
Dog, Somar
Theater,
“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,
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
Curating & Arts
Administration
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
Curated
music/performance series under the name Afterworld
Lounge productions in the SF Bay Area 1991-1993.
Curating Cricket
Engine Gallery,
Languages
English, Czech,
conversational French