ALEXIS SERIO

Alexis Serio received her MFA in painting from The University of Pennsylvania in 2000, and her BFA in painting from Syracuse University in 1998. She is currently a professor of Painting and Drawing at The University of Texas at Tyler.

Alexis combines abstraction with a sense of illusion to create an experience of remembrance. Her colors are chosen to suggest the natural elusiveness of ever changing light and constant optical movement. Layers of thick and thin paint suggest the idea of solid and ephemeral, and the relationship of permanence and impermanence.

My paintings are about the importance of memory in an individual’s lifetime. The concept of memory is a paradox. On the one hand, recollections exist as purely conceived constructs of present-day experience, giving us a clear division between then and now. On the other hand, the act of remembering readily informs our grasp of the now, thus making these distinctions unstable and fluid.

I explore this diminished division of time through my paintings so that they act as a metaphor for memory. I do not provide a true foothold beyond a horizon line or a suggested landscape palette for which to understand my paintings. Still, the viewer usually recognizes a particular place he or she has seen before. Through the execution of illusion and abstraction, I cultivate the personal experience of remembrance. In essence, I have painted the viewer’s memory.