January 2022 / In the Backspace: Alexis Kane

In the Backspace /

THOUGHTS IN THESE TIMES: Pandemic Era Collaborative Art by Alexis Kane

January 06 – 29, 2022
Opening Reception / Thursday, January 06, 5–8pm

Winter/Covid-19 Gallery Hours:
Friday–Sunday, 11am–4pm

Thoughts in These Times is a chronological series of forty portraits of friends and family drawn on pages of the New Yorker magazine collaged with each of their personalized thought-clouds. Alexis Kane began this work four months into the pandemic and two weeks after the murder of GeorgeFloyd on May 25th, 2020. 

Her first self-portrait, with collaged thought-clouds, was a graphic representation of how overwhelmed she felt in her daily life from the personal to the political.  Asking family and friends to send photos of a thoughtful self-portrait for her to work from, and inviting their collaboration by filling out their own thought-clouds, supported a feeling of community during times of isolation.

Alexis is an artist with small means but believes art itself is a powerful healer of ills.   In addition to the furthering collaborative nature of this project, financial proceeds will be used to support Wa Na Wari, a nonprofit arts organization that creates space for “Black ownership, possibility, and belonging through art, historic preservation and connection. “ www.wanawari.org  

Alexis Kane is a multimedia conceptual artist and artisan living and working in Seattle and Port Townsend, Washington. She is co-founder with Pamm Hanson of two ongoing artist collectives: The Painting Group since 1993 and Mark a Day (MAD) since 2012. She is the owner of Alexis Kane Studios, Inc., an art and antique restoration and architectural-finishing business which gives flexible work to women and gender-expansive artists. For the last ten years she has enjoyed twice yearly residencies at Centrum in Port Townsend, Washington.

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