10 Questions with Alice Shapiro

Mid-Emerging Artist Alice Shapiro (b.1946-) graduated from SUNY Farmingdale and studied Fine Studio Art at Hunter College with Robert Huot. While at Hunter, Shapiro was chosen for a student show at the Hunter Gallery by sculptor Donald Lipski. Shapiro received an Air France Art Award and was accepted into the smART Kinston art residency program 2022-23. Recent group exhibitions include Hong Kong, Canada, and forthcoming in Greece. Select acquisitions and collections include Regents Bank, Discovery Insurance, and the Museum of History and Art, Georgia. Shapiro began her art career as a portraitist in pastels, oils, and acrylics and found digital creation to be a life-changing creative direction in her art career. Shapiro's influences are Bauhaus, Surrealism, the Collagists, Pop Art, and Installation.

aliceshapirostudio.com

ARTIST STATEMENT

Alice Shapiro's art explores chaos/order, design/fine art, and complexity/simplicity. She hopes to solve the dichotomy of diversity versus exclusivity. As a digital collage artist and previously a Painter/Curator, Shapiro sees more technological inclusion evolving. When creators pull from personal values, experiences, and visions that engender joy, she believes digital art can survive, thrive, and, more importantly, leave the world a better place than when you arrived. Spiritually and creatively, Shapiro sees herself as an interpreter-connector, with collage being the most significant medium to express the relevance of her work.

The Nabuto9 Series exemplifies the Japanese art influences Shapiro has explored recently. These images reflect a character with a grumpy face from Japanese history and stories celebrated at a yearly festival that attracts 3 million visitors. When Shapiro began her art residency at Kinston, NC, she sketched the interior and exterior places around her neighborhood and then enhanced the drawings with digital elements. The dichotomy of outwardly serene scapes hides the emotional rumblings that exist within communities struggling with the modern era and post-pandemic transitions. Shapiro depicts these dichotomies by inserting highly charged photos of faces expressing extreme emotional angst, bright, cheerful colors, and delicate lines reminiscent of Paul Klee and Bauhaus's design.

INTERVIEW

First of all, introduce yourself to our readers. What is your artistic background and how did you start experimenting with images?

I graduated from SUNY Farmingdale in Advertising Arts and Design and studied Fine Studio Art at Hunter College NYC. My first awareness of art as a child came from a magazine ad selling prints by Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso. I was shocked that reality could be depicted in a distorted way, shattering my comprehension of how the world appears to others. In a way, I was awakened to the "me" as a unique objective consciousness. I was also a product of Surrealism and Cubism, the time in history when those movements had their beginnings. Subsequently, a fascination with the caricatures of celebrities coming to us in the Sunday magazine section of Newsday, the Long Island newspaper, prompted copying them as ink drawings. Until College, I tinkered with art and thought a career in advertising was the most lucrative life path. However, a deeper drive to explore Fine Art brought me back to art school in my 30's. After creating a few multimedia blog events during 2019-2021, including one about the Taiwan Art Fair, I became curious about Japanese art. 

Why are you an artist, and when did you first become one?

As mentioned, early exposure to famous paintings was a catalyst causing an inherent creative nature to express itself. The way I make art now "question" is answered with emotions. I love what I do and how I feel when I make art. Making art is the physical process of work most closely aligned with my soul. 
Early on, the struggle to find my artistic voice was satisfying (and frustrating). Upon finding my artistic voice, the process has become truly satisfying and uplifting emotionally. Art-making is a task I can repeatedly do without getting bored. There are always new and fascinating discoveries that pop up unexpectedly, providing many aha moments and synchronicities I can apply to life.

How would you define yourself as an artist today?

I used to define myself as a Fine Artist, a Painter, and a Lyrical Collagist, mostly on canvas. Since discovering digital creation a few years prior to 2019, I now consider myself a MId-Emerging Digital Collage Fine Artist. Or, more concisely, a Visual Artist, depending on the context where the question arises.

Can you tell us about the process of creating your work? How do you go from the first idea to the final outcome?

Sometimes I search for a face first. Then I expand the piece by imagining the essence coming from inside the person's photo. For instance, when I saw the photo of a Japanese woman smoking a cigarette, my imagination locked onto it like a dog with a bone. My memory went straight to 8th Street NYC and the East Village Dojo Japanese restaurant. Sadly, I understand Dojo has made way for more trendy sushi eateries (although I suspect my art is a much better fit for their tiny cubicle-like Yuccie walls. (Btw, Yuccie is a distinct offshoot of the GenX Yuppie, with variations on a theme).
At other times I build the work first, gathering graphic elements, decorative backgrounds, and ink sketches which I upload. Then I search for a face that matches/opposes the design's subtext. Such as my Nabuto series, which depicts lightly sketched scapes around town, a bit of pastel color, and then a highly-charged emotional face. This combines opposites of texture, color, mediums, and story to express the hidden violence within suppressed emotions and benign appearances.

What themes do you pursue with your work?

Collage is the closest medium I've found able to visually reproduce a storyline. Most of my work includes people as objects meant to explain a part of the story rather than to idealize an individual. I use people as I use other objects, like a tool to point to a theory or message. I've recently explored fashion, Asian culture, and scapes of local scenes.

You mostly work with digital art, and you often your work revolves around the dichotomy between chaos/order, design/fine art, and complexity/simplicity, as you mention in your statement. What is an essential element in your art?

My art has to express the essence of the people, places, and things I choose to gather into a visual story. The story, however, doesn't always have to be literal, linear, or make sense. Sometimes you simply get a glimpse of different inexplicable realities. For instance, while washing the breakfast dishes and thinking about tasks needing attention, my mind suddenly conjured up a dream I had several days prior. I instantly realized I was jumping dimensions of consciousness by reliving the dream as if I were still asleep, and simultaneously being awake in my kitchen. Everything in our reality is the same thing, and only appears individual or dual because they are on the same spectrum. Day and night may seem opposite, yet they are both the same thing at different phases. I believe that's one of the facets of spiritual alchemy I read about somewhere. And this is how I approach my subject matter of seeming opposites.

You have a peculiar style, somewhere in between a scrapbook and digital collage. How did you come up with your style?

I don't know. Maybe it's always been with me and couldn't emerge whole until I began exploring digital creation. One art director called my style "Fringe," similar to the Venice Biennial art. A New York reviewer said my style was Mashup Contemporary. Many say they've never seen anything like it before, so I feel like these are compliments. The purpose of my art, in addition to bringing me joy, is to hopefully provide viewers a space in the seeming chaos of cyclical life through the disruption of negativity. Leigh T. Jerome, Ph.D. of Relational Space, shared an article on LinkedIn with this very encouraging quote: "Even very brief viewings of virtual art exhibits via cellphones, tablets & laptops lowers negative mood, anxiety, & loneliness & improves subjective well-being comparable to nature experiences & visits to physical art galleries."

Do you find that the shift to digital exhibitions and art fairs has helped you promote your work?

Yes. Absolutely. The Art Basel Miami art fair was the defining moment of my external "coming of age" digital exhibition phase. It was a very orderly process. First, I had to find my artistic voice. Then I had to find a specific compatible outlet for my style, size, and audience. This was an organic journey and mostly formed on a subconscious level. 
In 2019 I had these things in place and wanted to bring my collection to the Miami Fair. Because I couldn't travel at the time (pre-pandemic), I decided to curate the collection, mount it on my living room wall, and display the art on my blog with the same schedule as the "real" art fair. The seed was sown, and during 2020-21 I created a series of similar blog exhibitions with multimedia collaborative aspects. The project ended when I was accepted into the art residency I currently participate in.

What do you think about the art community? Do you feel you have found your place there?

A bit of an introvert, I haven't bonded with other artists very much, although I love manning the gallery and meeting the artists in the gallery setting. Residency has provided amazing opportunities to focus on my art practice and expand my creativity, exhibition visibility, and a truly valuable sense of self-worth. LinkedIn gives me a social aspect of work-life balance while maintaining the valuable time I've been given to make art. Since beginning the residency five months ago, this experience has brought me into a world of imagination I hardly expected and am extremely grateful for.

Finally, any projects you are looking forward to for this year?

My Herritage Street Project installation first phase "There Is No Food Shortage" received a grant and is on view during the month of October 2023 here in North Carolina. Also featured in the Project are a series of digital collage works and a limited edition silver and diamond pendant that I had fabricated by a Master Jeweler. During 2025 a traveling digital billboard exhibition is being scheduled.
Currently, you may reach me at aliceshapirostudio.com