about
I works across a number of styles and mediums, including drawing, painting, photography, collage and large wall works. My practice is characterized by a willingness to try new approaches in the ongoing investigation into new materials and visual languages. As well my painting practice emphasizes the importance of failure as a way of moving forward, and challenging established structures. I use the space and exploration the work provides to visualize the invisible nature of the human experience.
Stella Alesi has resided in Austin, Texas for the last 29 years. Their work is included in both private and corporate collections. Alesi is currently working towards an exhibit in June 2022 at the Northern-Southern gallery, Austin, Texas. Alesi's most recent solo exhibit took place in March of 2022 at Artspace111 gallery in Fort Worth, TX. In addition, the large scale art piece , "Simplify" was installed in August 2019 in the lobby of The Foundry in Austin, TX. Currently a full time painter, Stella taught photography at the Austin Community College and ran a successful photography business for over 15 years.
In 2005 Alesi was awarded a Brown Foundation Full Fellowship to attend a residency at the Vermont Studio Center.
Born on Long Island, New York in 1963, Alesi was raised in New Jersey. They began their undergraduate work at Parsons School of Design in New York City, with stints in Paris and Los Angeles, and finished at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. Their graduate work was completed at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
“Through oil paint, wax, and shaped wood panels, Alesi’s personal history is distilled through composed abstractions. Opportunity is granted for viewers to reflect on their own personal histories while questioning the ephemeral nature of human experience; the idea of shape connects us. What do certain shapes reveal to us that others do not? The perpetual obscurity in all shapes asks us to reflect on the tangibility of emotion and our own humanity. – Margery Gossett, Gallery Owner, Artspace111
Relentlessly curious, Alesi vigorously explores abstraction in all media from large vivid sculpture to alluring prints.
-Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, Founder and editor-in-chief of Sightlines
About the exhibit "&' that took place in July 2022 at the Northern-Southern Gallery in Austin, TX, Phillip Niemeyer, gallery director writes:
spirit forms, continuous and ever-changing
& describes Alesi's art and practice: flowing always to new forms and new reasons. Alesi works in a series:, each an era in a moment, marking the emotional time of the making. They seldom revisit a series. Alesi moves to the next one, and the next, and the next. And, and, and.