Alexis Zelda Stevens is a multi-media artist who makes moving-image and performance, as well as sculpture, room-filling installation, images and dance.
Her work is medium-large scale, sometimes collaborative and often outside the gallery from a ruined Cornish copper mine, to a carpark on a half demolished estate in London.
Across different media the work is an ongoing exploration of installation and immersive work, liveness in the material world, body and people in relation; textural, poetic, surreal, concerned with the visceral body and psychological states.
Recent projects include: SET Free Studio Prize, a year-long residency in a re-purposed building in Woolwich; Recreational Grounds IV, London; Scaffold Gallery’s There is No Such Thing as Boredom, Paradise Works, Manchester; i.e.a.o.u/ SHELF at Old Spanish City, Newcastle; and SPACE, London. She was commissioned by Metal Southend to make a new outdoor work for Village Green, Artists Village through a CultureLab residency in 2016; has been a recipient of artist development support from A-N and Jerwood Arts/ Sadler’s Wells; and has been funded by Arts Council England. She studied Fine Art at Falmouth University and Dance Performance Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. As a curator/producer, she established the Visual Arts Commissioning Programme at Green Man music festival in 2016 . Read Creative Boom’s article: Green Man Brings Art out of the Gallery and into the Festival Field.
CV. (Download)
PERFORMANCES
2022
Soul’s Landscape, SET Woolwich. An evening of eight new choreographies showcasing a new 5 minute solo.
2019
Studio Sharing, The Place, London. One Way Street to Disaster. Devising performer in Tanztheatre work by choreographer Adrian Look.
2017
SPACE, London. LCN Showcase, Edition Two. Contents in Touch. 20 min dance work choreographed/directed by me in response to my text, made with and danced by Francesco Migliaccio, Marta Polak and Robyn Holder. Three performances.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
iireal Life, Durham Street Studios. Curated by Laura Moreton- Griffiths.
Toppling, SET Woolwich an exhibition organised by some of the SET Free Studio Prize artists as a celebration to mark the end of their studio residency and as a partial response to the building itself.
2021
IF 2021, Improvisation Festival Canada selected by Elysium Gallery Swansea screened internationally online
First Floor Floating, SET Free Studio Prize Group Exhibition, SET Woolwich
2019
Recreational Grounds IV in association with ASC and PADA Studios Lisbon, Wendover House Car Park, Ayelsbury Estate, London.
2018
i.a.u.o.e and SHELF London at The Old Spanish City, Newcastle// Forthcoming
Peer Social at St.John on Bethnal Green, London. Genesis Light Magic
Scaffold Gallery at Paradise Works, Manchester. There is No Such Thing As Boredom
2017
SPACE, London. LCN Showcase, Edition Two. New sculptural work, dance film.
Assembly Point Studios, London. ODDS. Group exhibition curated by Robbie Fife and Jonathan Kipps.
2007
Mineral Tramways Festival, Redruth. Wheal Art Weekend. Curated by Level2 Collective. Under the Thrift. Site-specific installation outdoors on a public world heritage site, Wheal Francis Mine.
2006
Phoenix Arts Association, Brighton. Outside the Frame. Large-scale, room-filling installation Confronting the Gaze.
Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance. Provisional Newlyn. A collaboration: Collaborate or Separate? Invited by artist Dominic Thomas.
COMMISSIONS
2016
Metal, Southend. Village Green Festival 2016, Artists Village produced by Metal. Large Shrub 3. New temporary commission, site-specific outdoor installation in a public park during a one day festival. Supported by Metal's Culture Lab and Arts Council England.
SOLO PRESENTATIONS
2005
ArtSway. New Forest. Alexis Zelda Stevens. Large-scale two-room installation. Selected out of 100 people curated by Peter Bonnell. Supported by the ArtHouse, Wakefield.
RESIDENCIES
2016
Metal Culture-Lab, R&D for new commission.
Sadler’s Wells/Jerwood Arts. The Big Intensive. One of 15 emerging choreographers on a two-week fully supported professional development residency supported by Jerwood Arts/ Jerwood Studio programme.
2007
Attik Dance Company, Moving Summer. Landscape-based research and development Residency.
2005
ArtSway [pro] Duction Residency. Sought after two-month residency to generate new work for a solo show, supported by the ArtHouse.
AWARDS
2021
SET Free Studio Award, one of 19 artists out of a submission of 500 to be awarded a 400q ft space in SET’s new art centre in WoolWich, London.
2020
Arts Council England Covid-19 Emergency Grant
2019
ArtQuest/Cubitt Peer Network, peer-crit group with invited specialists
2018
a-n Artist Bursary, for self-defined professional development activity: Tanztheatre training, jesmonite casting, mentoring by Eddie Peake.
2017
SPACE LCN Artist Development Programme, six months.
2007
Creative Skills Consortium Skills Development Bursary, to train with Attik Dance.
2006
Arts Council England Grants for the Arts, self-fundraised for solo presentation at Phoenix Arts Association, Confronting the Gaze.
2005
The Art House Morethan12 Bursary scheme, mentoring with Ruth Claxton and contact with writer Max Andrews as part of ArtSway residency.
ESSAYS
2016
Olivia Punnett, At The Still Point, AGC Gallery Catalogue essay. Reconfiguring the Ordinary Past.
a-n.org and Danceuk.org. A series of interviews about art and dance with Stephanie Rosenthal, Siobhan Davies and others.
PRESS/ PUBLICATIONS
2018
Psycho, Broken Grey Wires Artist Book
2005
The Guardian Guide. Preview and pick of the week, ArtSway solo presentation.
New York Arts Magazine. The St. Ives New School. July/ August, vol10, no 7 & 8 by Max Andrews, then Curatorial Assistant to Director at Tate, and Curatorial Fellow Walker Art Centre Minneapolis.
Artsway: Alexis Zelda Stevens. Exhibition Catalogue (ISBN 0 9543930 58)
COLLECTIVES
2017-20
Peer Social, an intergenerational group of female artists over 35 who met on a SPACE development programme. Since supported by ArtQuest in association with Cubitt and Raven Row.
2006
Founder member of the Cornwall Visual Arts Forum planning committee
CURATING
2016-24
Visual Art Producer, Green Man Festival. Project leadership including curation and installation of new large-scale works in light and digital media for a 4-day 20,000 capacity festival.
EDUCATION
Cert.H.E Dance Performance Studies, Birkbeck
BA Hons Fine Art, First, Falmouth College of Arts