Alexa Gallo

Year of birth: 2003
Where do you live: Long Island, New York
Your education: Bachelors of Fine Art
Describe your art in three words: Bold, intimate, cathartic
Your discipline: Painting and Printmaking
Website | Instagram

Your bio describes your work as a “love letter to life’s quiet moments.” Can you share what moments in daily life inspire you the most?

I have always been drawn to the small, intimate moments in life, the mundane and habitual activities that connect us all. Making morning coffee, calling a friend to catch up, sharing a cigarette with a stranger, and just sitting next to someone in silence, all inspire me. I enjoy memorializing these experiences through my work in an effort for them to last forever. A singular moment stretched through time untouched by the chaotic beauty of life.

Your oil painting “5:51am” captures a surreal yet familiar morning scene. What does that specific time represent to you?

5:51am represents the sunrise during a spring day. The weather is just starting to get warmer while the days get longer. The piece including two peoples arms folded in lazy embrace works in tandem with the title 5:51am to create a warm morning scene being experienced between two lovers. They have the whole day ahead of them but at this moment they have each other.

Alexa Gallo | 5:51am

Flowers appear in multiple works, often juxtaposed with darker elements. What role does nature play in your narrative?

Flowers are beautiful and delicate, but can be very powerful. During the Victorian era, flowers were assigned meanings and were used to pass messages. I use flowers in my work to further the message I am trying to convey. The delicateness of the flowers juxtaposes a violent scene inviting the viewer to look deeper into the piece and its meaning.

How do you approach blending traditional media like woodblock printmaking with painting and sculpture?

Material plays a very important role in my work. My work includes oil paintings, woodcuts, and wood and found object sculptures. The ideas I am exploring are directly influenced by the medium I choose to use. Soft elements like skin and light are pushed to states even more supple by my applied blending techniques with oil paint, while the rough surface of wood directly opposes softer subject matter. The intensity that accompanies carving layers of wood is an almost mutilating action. I enjoy toying with how softer subjects such as flowers and the human form interact with the rigid material of wood. In my piece Forget Me Not, the figure is painted in oil emphasizing the suppleness of the human form surrounded by woodcut forget-me-not flowers, another delicate subject matter that is instead being created with a hard, rigid material.

Alexa Gallo | Forget Me Not

Many of your works feature hands — sometimes isolated, sometimes intertwined. What draws you to this subject?

I believe hands can be as expressive as faces. Hands have the ability to direct the narrative of each piece. A hand can be strained and show anger or distress. They can be soft and relaxed to show comfort or sadness. Hands are tools that have the ability to create or destroy worlds. They are used in spiritual and religious practices, art and revolutions. Hands are our unspoken language that unites us no matter who we are.

Do you work on multiple pieces at once, or focus on one artwork from start to finish?

I tend to work on one piece at a time. I find that my pieces change and grow as I sit with them. I enjoy giving my all to one piece allowing it to form into what it wants to be. This can be meditative for me and while I’m sitting with one work I will get inspiration for other pieces.

Alexa Gallo | Interconnectivity

Which artist or movement has most influenced your practice and why?

I am influenced by old master artists who have studied and mastered the painting of light. Edward Hopper is one of the masters of light that I have been drawn to that influences my work. His technique of creating shapes with light and shadow makes the composition dance across the canvas. The color and tones of his lighting furthers the narrative by creating mood. The intense lighting of Caravaggio’s work and the expressions he captures in his figures, have also had a heavy influence in my work. I have always enjoyed the stories behind his works and how he was able to capture raw human emotion.