#sparkchamber 062722 — Alexis Hyde
We love a good plot twist here at #sparkchamber, and we get a fun one with today’s visitor, curator Alexis Hyde. Originally hailing from Austin, Texas, Alexis has been a vocal and passionate proponent, participant, and ally of the Los Angeles art scene for over a decade. She ran away from Texas as fast as a plane would carry her to the glorious halls of UCSB, where she had been recruited for physics. After 3 years of expanding her mind and fighting the most boring and redundant fight against the inherent misogynistic tendencies pervasive in the STEM fields at the time, she changed her focus to art and her major to art history. If you really think about it, they are basically the same thing. [Here’s a short read on that.]
Her unique left brain/right brain background prepared Alexis well for her first art-world challenge — sourcing metals for a Carl Andre sculpture show — and she was hooked. Cutting her teeth at such institutions as Doug Aitken’s studio and Richard Meier & Partners, she is no stranger to the unprecedented and truly Los Angeles.
In addition, she is also known for her writing and curating online and IRL for projects with Spike Jonze’s film I’m Here, Ann Taylor, The Getty, LACMA, The Newsstand, Hyperallergic and ArtShareLA. We would also be remiss to leave out that in certain circles she is moderately Tumblr famous for her long running blog Hyde or Die .
1.] Where do ideas come from?
Everywhere! I’m always taking notes — and always have — of what I find interesting. Quotes, titles, colors, clippings. I save them all and go through them periodically letting them marinate, sink to the bottom, resurface. Some are fast ideas, some take longer to gestate.
2.] What is the itch you are scratching?
Getting resources and information to people who need it. The art world can be pretty prohibitive on both fronts, so I'm doing what I can to push things out there.
3.] Early bird or night owl? Tortoise or hare?
I am someone who loves consistency. I like an office to go into every day, I love to get going early with a work out and then straight into the day with that energy. I like scheduling meetings and calls and even emails ahead of time! Creativity is a place for a lot of imagination but it's so important for me to keep it grounded in a consistent infrastructure.
4.] How do you know when you are done?
Sometimes you never are, sometimes it is because you set a deadline and have to be.