Ep. 011 - Alessandra Maria - Iconographer and Iconoclast

Art Grind Podcast

Having cut her teeth at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, Hawaii-based artist Alessandra Maria has continued to produce ornate works of pencil and gold leaf on paper stained with coffee or walnut ink. The works evoke a sense of timelessness - at once medieval and modern, blending a Byzantine iconography with an urge to create her own new icons. We got a chance to talk to Alessandra about her beginnings as an artist in New York, her new life in Maui, and the drive behind her work -- challenging traditional representations of the feminine, learning from sacred traditions, and always studying up on theory. Drawing from various lines of inspiration as the spatiality of snow, Islamic geometry, and walking ten miles to look at a Klimt, Alessandra takes us through her journey as an artist and a person, starting with her religious roots in Seattle, through being a broke Brooklyn art student, up to her search for a small scrap of purpose in bringing her mental iconography to life. Audio edited by Michael Gusev

Support the show