Smith, Alexis, 1949-

Alexis Smith is a contemporary American artist. Working primarily in collage and installation, she has combined text and imagery from a variety of sources—including film, advertising, and popular literature—to explore the psychology of the American identity. Smith’s work is often contextualized within her role as a West Coast artist, and is characterized by her continued interest in Hollywood and the Los Angeles landscape. She has cited Pop Art and American writers such as Jack Kerouac, Walt Whitman, and Gertrude Stein as important influences in her work, remarking that “I think I am interested in what people say. I am interested in the way they take common impulses and translate them into stories and feelings and poetic observations, and I'm interested in things that happen to people that seem like good examples of the human condition.” Born Patti Anne Smith in Los Angeles, CA in 1949, she went on to study at the University of California in Irvine until 1970. She has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA P.S.1 in Queens, and the Brooklyn Museum, and her work can be found in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others. She lives and works in Los Angeles, CA