Artist Bio
Based in the NTX region where she was born and raised, Alyssa Chi earned a BFA in Drawing and Painting from the University of North Texas. After graduating she joined The McKinney Avenue Contemporary (The MAC) as Development Manager for a brief but illuminating time. Exposure to the many exceptional artists represented locally had immense impact on her practice. For the last 20 years, making art has served as a means of offloading intense emotions in a way that externalizes them into conceptually and visually stimulating works. Alyssa’s current painting practice can be described as the reconciliation of unruly mark-making made during outpourings of raw emotion into balanced and cohesive compositions. Through the use of additive and reductive techniques to counterbalance the chaos, she paints until she finds a sense of resolve. For Alyssa, painting is necessity. The work will continue to be made at a pace sustainable with the current demands of living. That is to say, slowly. Like really good barbecue.
Artist Statement
My paintings are created without a predetermined end point, allowing expressive freedom to put forward the fullness of faced feelings. Using chromatic transitions between colors is my current obsession and I find it serves as a satisfying metaphor for bridging gaps in binary thinking. It is an outer reflection of moving into quantum perspectives as I consider viewpoints outside of either/or. Observation of nature drives the forms taking shape in my paintings. This is incidental rather than an intentional correlate, but it encourages me to connect with the land anywhere I am. There is endless beauty to explore and I want it to inform my work. Living is part of the practice.
CV
Education
BFA, Painting and Drawing concentration, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 2013
Associates Degree in Liberal Arts, Northlake Community College, Irving, TX 2009
Exhibitions
2023 EXPO 2023, 500X Gallery, Dallas TX
(Juror – Randall Garrett)
2020 Third Coastal Biennial, K Space Contemporary, Corpus Christi
(Juror – Rigoberto Luna)
2019 Chaos! 7, Ro2 Art, Dallas TX
(Invitation)
2019 Like a Girl, Gilbert House, Dallas TX
(Curator – Molly Sydnor)
2019 Vignette Art Fair 2019, The Women’s Museum Building, Fair Park, Dallas TX
(Curator – Leslie Moody Castro)
2018 Hot and Sweaty, 500X Gallery, Dallas TX
2014 Something Old, Something New, Something Funky, Something Blue, The MAC, Dallas TX
2014 Chaos!, Ro2 Art, Dallas TX
(Invitation)
2014 Ghostwood Sessions IV, Nerv Gallery, Dallas TX
(Invitation)
2013 Δ (Delta), The MAC, Dallas TX
2013 Alternative Reflection Group Exhibition, The Basement Gallery, Dallas TX
(Invitation)
2012 Hot-n-Sweaty, 500X Gallery, Dallas TX
2012 Art Works: a fundraiser for Hug it Forward, The Green Elephant, Dallas TX
(Invitation)
Professional Experience
2014 Juror for John Bunker Sands Wetland Center Photography Contest, The MAC, Dallas TX
2013 – 2014 Development Manager at The MAC, Dallas TX
2013 Receptionist for the project Curtains with Good/Bad Art Collective