AVAILABLE ARTWORKS BY ALEX HODGE
Behind Closed Doors Series
In this new series of wall plaques, titled "Behind Closed Doors," the artist reimagines original images from a book titled In Praise of the Backside. The book's collection features women from behind, most often captured by men, often untitled and anonymous. In the artist's reinterpretation of these images, women transcend their status as objects of lines and shadows, becoming subjects imbued with emotion, thought, and a place of belonging.
Sculptural Jar Series
In this sculptural jar series, the artist draws on iconography surrounding nature, women and the history of Western art to question our place in the order of things. Women and nature have been subjugated to the whims of those in power for centuries; by highlighting this connection through pastiche and surface decoration, she offers an alternative narrative. In the most apparent manifestation, Creation Myth, the artist forces the examination of an age-old story: that God is a man, and man is first. By centering women, the artist’s primary effort is to cement women’s place in the canon. References to artists like Michaelangelo and Matisse draw connections across time to highlight the thread that binds.
Porcelain Plates Collection
Her poetic porcelain plates examine and reimagine the history of art in a way that values women not only in body, but in wholeness, power, and love. Focusing on the narrative qualities of art-making, she weaves stories into the clay that are both personal and universal.
In light of her
The three series that make up her thesis show all center around the woman as an art historical trope who becomes a contemporary archetype of tenderness and tenacity with her own narrative. The tradition of the woman as muse or object is questioned and turned upside down as she gives her women the position of subject, i.e., the position of power. The jars, which uphold pairs of women, are the ultimate overturn of male dominance as she removes and replaces all male characters from famous artworks with women. The couples care for one another and are so consumed in their connection that the viewer is ignored. They do not exist for the viewer’s fantasy because their desires are already fulfilled. Through these three bodies of work, she creates archival objects which combine to build a narrative of women’s power, based on the Love Ethic, as discussed by bell hooks in her book, All About Love. Furthermore, notions of power are investigated in tandem with Mary Follett’s writings on power, which delineate Western conception as power-over, and the feminist ideal as power-with.
Unsung Muses Series
Unsung Muses is a group of large-scale vessels, wall pieces, and small sculptures which comprised a solo exhibition at the University of Georgia's School of Art in October 2015. The works were accompanied by an excerpt from an Adrienne Rich poem titled "Transcendental Etude." The excerpt reads:
"But in fact we were always like this, rootless, dismembered: knowing it makes the difference. Birth stripped our birthright from us, tore us from a woman, from women, from ourselves so early on and the whole chorus throbbing at our ears like midges, told us nothing, nothing of origins, nothing we needed to know, nothing that could re-member us."
Fragments of Our Love Story Series
The lady cups reference the ancient tradition of feminine totems and goddess figures with their plump bellies and wide hips. In contrast to contemporary beauty ideals, these figures demonstrate the capacity for life and abundance that used to be celebrated. By covering large sections of their forms with her own poetic text, she fills them with a narrative of love, each poem spilling from one cup to the next. The continuity across feminine forms reflects the way that women’s stories are often fragmented by culture and time.
ALEX HODGE
REPRESENTED ARTIST
Alex Hodge is a ceramic artist primarily concerned with creating works that juxtapose the canon of Western art with the lived experiences of contemporary women. As a gay woman growing up in the rural south, she became familiar with the sense of being on the periphery, spending her youth roaming the woods, gathering material for little sculptures and creating stories for herself. She went on to study and earn a BFA in Ceramics from the University of Georgia, with notable exhibitions like Unsung Muses and Eyes That Bind, graduate summa cum laude and receive honors such as the Outstanding Undergraduate Award. Here, clay became the conduit for her to speak to her experience, and primarily her frustrations. Ever curious for more knowledge and skill, she then pursued an MFA at the University of Miami. There, she earned the MFA Summer Fellowship and William Oberman Award, and graduated summa cum laude. During this time she pivoted from expressions of anger to prioritizing love between women, and the deep well of women’s internal landscapes. Her works have since been exhibited with the Morean Arts Center, Arts Benicia, the Imurj Gallery and more. Currently, she resides in rural Georgia, spinning her stories into sculptures that reveal what has been historically hidden.