BIOGRAPHY
(b. 1980, New York City, NY. Lives and works in the United States)
Graduated LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts (Manhattan), 1999
BA Musical Composition and Performance, Wesleyan University, 2003
Alexis Gideon is an American visual artist, composer and performer, best known for his innovative animated live video operas and multidisciplinary techniques. Gideon, whose career began under the mentorship of musical legend Anthony Braxton, considers music the backbone and inspiration for all his work. Critic Alex Oliver writes, “It’s hard to know whether Gideon views [his pieces] as an occasion for the music, or whether the music is the midwife of the experience. Gesamtkunstwerk is achieved.”
Combining research, literature, musical composition, painting, sculpture, installation, video, and performance, Gideon's work examines the loss of the mystical in contemporary society. Alienation, subjugation and the human condition are persistent themes in the artist’s work. In 2013, the New Museum of Contemporary Art paired Gideon with William Kentridge in a joint exhibition that explored spiritual and political colonialism.
Gideon has performed and exhibited throughout the world, including at Moderna Museet Stockholm, New Museum of Contemporary Art, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Málaga, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Vdrome, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Wexner Center for the Arts, and Time Zones Festival Italia. His work is in the collection of the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, the Debra & Dennis Scholl Collection in Miami, FL, The Benter Foundation in Pittsburgh, PA as well as a number of private collections.
Gideon's work has been funded by the Heinz Endowments, the Pittsburgh Foundation, Regional Arts and Culture Council of Oregon, Oudies (France), European Union (FEDER), the Languedoc-Roussillon Regional Council, Languedoc-Rousillon DRAC, and the Gard Council.
The work has been translated into French, Spanish, German, Italian and Chinese. It has been adopted into Oregon State University’s Chinese Cultural Studies curriculum and selected by in the Borges Center (University of Pittsburgh) In the Arts collection. Gideon has been an art juror at the Cleveland Institute of Art, a guest artist at Carnegie Mellon University MFA Integrative Seminar, and lecturer at SUNY Stoney Brook, Kawenga Digital Arts and Culture Center (Montpellier, France), Washington State University, University of New Mexico (Albuquerque), University of Oklahoma (Tulsa), and the Portland Art Museum.
Graduated LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts (Manhattan), 1999
BA Musical Composition and Performance, Wesleyan University, 2003
Alexis Gideon is an American visual artist, composer and performer, best known for his innovative animated live video operas and multidisciplinary techniques. Gideon, whose career began under the mentorship of musical legend Anthony Braxton, considers music the backbone and inspiration for all his work. Critic Alex Oliver writes, “It’s hard to know whether Gideon views [his pieces] as an occasion for the music, or whether the music is the midwife of the experience. Gesamtkunstwerk is achieved.”
Combining research, literature, musical composition, painting, sculpture, installation, video, and performance, Gideon's work examines the loss of the mystical in contemporary society. Alienation, subjugation and the human condition are persistent themes in the artist’s work. In 2013, the New Museum of Contemporary Art paired Gideon with William Kentridge in a joint exhibition that explored spiritual and political colonialism.
Gideon has performed and exhibited throughout the world, including at Moderna Museet Stockholm, New Museum of Contemporary Art, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Málaga, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Vdrome, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Wexner Center for the Arts, and Time Zones Festival Italia. His work is in the collection of the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, the Debra & Dennis Scholl Collection in Miami, FL, The Benter Foundation in Pittsburgh, PA as well as a number of private collections.
Gideon's work has been funded by the Heinz Endowments, the Pittsburgh Foundation, Regional Arts and Culture Council of Oregon, Oudies (France), European Union (FEDER), the Languedoc-Roussillon Regional Council, Languedoc-Rousillon DRAC, and the Gard Council.
The work has been translated into French, Spanish, German, Italian and Chinese. It has been adopted into Oregon State University’s Chinese Cultural Studies curriculum and selected by in the Borges Center (University of Pittsburgh) In the Arts collection. Gideon has been an art juror at the Cleveland Institute of Art, a guest artist at Carnegie Mellon University MFA Integrative Seminar, and lecturer at SUNY Stoney Brook, Kawenga Digital Arts and Culture Center (Montpellier, France), Washington State University, University of New Mexico (Albuquerque), University of Oklahoma (Tulsa), and the Portland Art Museum.