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Alexis Blake
[edit]Alexis Blake an artist who lives and works in Amsterdam, merges visual arts, performance and dance to explore the body as an archive of embodied knowledge. Each of Blake’s compositions are based on extensive research into specific historie such as the politics of emotions, archetypal depictions of women in western art history from the Renaissance to the start of Modernism, or the banning of lamentations in Ancient Greece which she uses to build an ever expanding lexicon of gestures, sounds and even scents. In all her works the artist directly connects with the representation and subjectification of women’s and queer bodies while activating them as sites and agents for socio-political change.
Early life
[edit]Blake born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Alexis located to Amsterdam after completing her M.A in Fine Arts from Piet Zwart Institute Rotterdam (2007) and was an artist-in-residence at WIELS, Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels (2020-2021).
Career
[edit]Her work has been presented at a wide range of international institutions and festivals, including KW Contemporary (Berlin)[1], the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam) [2] , Holland Festival (Amsterdam)[3], the 1st Riga Biennial (Riga, Latvia)[4], BOZAR (Brussels)[5], Performatik19 (Brussels), the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin)[6], the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam), the British Museum / Block Universe Performance Festival (London), TENT (Rotterdam), ExtraCity (Antwerp)[7] and La Triennale di Milano XXI (Milan).
Artistic work
[edit]Central to Blake’s oeuvre is Crack Nerve Boogie Swerve, originally conceived in 2019 and now unfolding across performance, installation and public space in evolving forms. The work embraces concepts such as transparency, resistance, resonance and disruption breaking free from norms, liberating oneself from the constraints of oppression [8].WIELS describes how Blake expands the performance into a “performative exhibition that encapsulates its past iterations while slowly transforming the present one,” inviting the audience to envision the gallery space as a speculative archive. In that context, glass becomes a performer, conductor, instrument and metaphor for the individual and collective body: vulnerable but resilient.
The iteration on The High Line in New York, celebrated as the U.S. premiere of Crack Nerve Boogie Swerve, is described as both installation and performance, one that “takes up glass and breaking as metaphors for the fragility and strength of the individual and collective body.” It activates the work through a percussionist, low-frequency sound artist and four dancers bringing together hip hop, contemporary, ballet, Afro-fusion and tap to explore transparency, resistance, resonance and breaking breaking free from constraints and liberating oneself from the confinement of oppression [9]. She situates the work in relation to New York City’s industrial past brick factories and warehouses as well as its current glass-and-steel architecture, creating what institutions call “a new vocabulary of sound and movement” [10].
This approach melding glass, movement, sound, history and embodied experience crystallizes her method: the body and material fragility become expressive tools for exploring resilience, collective agency, and the archives of lived experience.
Alexis Blake collaborated with Brazilian sound artist Stefanie Egedy as part of the performance Crack Nerve Boogie Swerve. At the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin (January 2023), Egedy performed as a sound artist and composer alongside percussionist Sofia Borges and producer mobilegirl.[11]
Awards
[edit]She is the winner of the Dutch art prize, Prix de Rome in 2021.
References
[edit]- ^ "Pause – Alexis Blake". KW Institute for Contemporary Art. KW. 5 December 2022. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
- ^ "Performance – Alexis Blake". Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Stedelijk Museum. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
- ^ "Alexis Blake – Holland Festival". Holland Festival. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
- ^ "Alexis Blake – Riga Biennial publication". Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art. Riga Biennial. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
- ^ "Allegory of the Painted Woman – Alexis Blake". BOZAR – Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels. BOZAR. 23 March 2019. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
- ^ "Alexis Blake – Artist profile". Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA). IMMA. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
- ^ "The Image Generator II – group exhibition (with Alexis Blake), 6–29 February 2016". Extra City Kunsthal. 6 February 2016. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
- ^ "Crack Nerve Boogie Swerve: the archive (7 June – 11 August 2024)". WIELS Contemporary Art Centre. WIELS. 7 June 2024. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
- ^ "Alexis Blake: Crack Nerve Boogie Swerve (September 5 & 7, 2023)". Chelsea Market – Arts and Culture. Chelsea Market / Jamestown LP. 5 September 2023. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
- ^ "Alexis Blake Performs *Crack Nerve Boogie Swerve* on the High Line, US Premiere" (PDF). High Line Art (Friends of the High Line). Friends of the High Line. 29 August 2023. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
- ^ "Pause – Alexis Blake (Crack Nerve Boogie Swerve)". KW Institute for Contemporary Art. KW. 27–29 January 2023. Retrieved 18 August 2025.