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Alexis Smith

Alexis Smith is a multimedia artist known for her witty collages and assemblages that mine pop culture and pulp fiction to produce irreverent critiques of consumerism, advertising, and celebrity culture. Born and raised in Southern California, Smith considers herself a "product" of Hollywood. She pairs leftovers of tinsel town kitsch—recycled thrift-store book jackets, advertisements, and Hollywood memorabilia—with snippets of folk wisdom and homespun clichés. While Smith's talent for appropriating language often begets comparison to Barbara Kruger, her shallow dioramas and magpie aesthetic recall the assemblages of Joseph Cornell and Betye Saar.


Click here to read our interview with Alexis Smith on exposing ironies in pop culture.

Born 1949
Hometown Los Angeles, CA
Lives and Works Los Angeles, CA
Education
BA, University of California, Irvine, CA, 1970
Permanent Collection

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
The Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA
San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA
Progressive Corporation, Mayfield, OH

Representing Galleries

Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York, NY
Sylvia White Gallery, Ventura, CA
Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA