Alexa Guariglia

Moskowitz Bayse is pleased to present The Outside World, an exhibition of new paintings by Alexa Guariglia. The Outside World is the artist’s eighth solo exhibition with the gallery, and will be on view May 18 - June 29, 2024.

In this new series of paintings, Alexa Guariglia embraces an anthropological approach to image making, setting her attention on what she refers to as “places of anonymity,” where human behavior conforms to collectively established routines. As both observer and participant, Guariglia examines the mechanisms of urban life, absorbing the complex symbols and taxonomic systems around which humanity organizes itself. She reinterprets typically quotidian scenes like the nail salon, the dog park, or an eyewear shop, as fantastically intricate worlds full of beauty and nuance.

Her velvety gouache compositions present like jewelry boxes or treasure chests yearning to be rummaged through. In Fresh Eyes and Stage Hands, conical beams of light pouring from spectacle lenses and theater fixtures guide the eye across richly-toned scenes of human interaction. In following these suggested sightlines as they bounce throughout Guariglia’s imaginative ecosystems, entire worlds within worlds reveal themselves in even the most minute details. 

The repeated motifs wallpapering each venue and adorning her subjects’ garments melt away and reconstitute themselves into unique tableaux––both remembered and invented. In The Outer Shell, bottles of nail polish appear like precious gemstones impossibly surrounding the salon’s manicurists and patrons in a technicolor whirlwind. Here, Guariglia is not concerned with literal representation so much as capturing the essential sensory truths of this iconic locale. 

Guariglia possesses a hypersensitivity and idiosyncratic knack for pattern recognition that guides her creative practice. She fundamentally moves through life as a collector, cataloging noteworthy forms, textures, and movements, and adding them to her robust mental lexicon for later use. The patchworked vignettes in The Great Escape and Night Bloom exemplify this aspect of her approach, offering viewers a mesmerizing reprieve from their internal anxieties. In stitching together her personal memories and subjective impressions of the natural world, Guariglia creates sophisticatedly whimsical tapestries that equate to much more than the sum of their parts. 

In response to the overbearing overstimulation of contemporary life, Guariglia’s boldly feminine works generously illuminate new tools for processing one’s surroundings: earnest curiosity and radical optimism.


Text by Claire Foussard