Iole Alessandrini

Born and raised in Italy, Iole Alessandrini is an artist who has been living in Seattle since 1994. She received her diploma in Fine Arts from the First State School of Fine Arts in Rome and earned two Master's degrees in Architecture: one from the University of La Sapienza in Rome and the other from the University of Washington in Seattle. It is the intersection between these two creative expressions – art and architecture – through which her work moves. Iole’s work combines the singularity of art with the social pragmatism of architecture. She designed her first Laser-Plane during a residency at BAM (2000) in collaboration with optical-engineer Ed Mannery. In 2007 she installed Greener featuring a laser-installation over 25,000 square feet of grass at SAM’s Olympic Sculpture Park. In 2019 she has been selected to create a permanent light installation for the Climate Pledge Arena at the Seattle Center, opening in 2021. She is the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Grant (2002), Betty Bowen Award (2000) and Civita Institute Fellowship (1996).

Through manipulation of light, digital media and physical space, I design and build ephemeral, controlled environments that people enter rather than observe from a distance. Light is energy: waves and particles of infinitesimal dimensions that are made visible by boundaries. Architecture is movement: a powerful and meaningful symbol that redefines space and invents new functions. Physical space in its states of transformation solicits emotional feelings and brings back memories. Light, being a remote projection from a time of which we have no memory, challenges these feelings and moves our emotions, and ideas forward.

Website / iole.org