Alexis Silk

Alexis is renowned glass artist who has worked in top glass schools, including the famous Pilchuck Glass School. Born in Seattle in 1983, Alexis moved to Berkeley California when she was 10 years old. In 2001 she entered the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) . She quickly identified sculpture as her passion with a focus in foundry. In addition to working at SAIC in cast bronze, she traveled to distant foundries to explore the more extreme process of working in cast iron. In 2004 she spent six months living, studying sculpture, and learning to fire dance in Madrid, Spain; it was an experience that was both exhilarating and profoundly expanding.

After returning from Spain, Alexis discovered glass-blowing and took to it like a fish to water. Her introduction was at Ox-Bow Art School in Saugatuck Michigan working with glass artist Jerry Catania. Working independently at Chicago Hot Glass and at Pilchuck Glass School with Boyd Sugiki she developed her glassblowing skills. Meanwhile, at Pilchuck Glass School, she was exposed to the sculptural work of Pino Signoretto and was instantly inspired by it. It offered a perfect intersection of her passion for working in hot glass, her life-long fascination with the human figure, and her desire for conceptual expression in her work.
After receiving her BFA in 2005, Alexis formed Noga Silk Art Glass with her partner Andrew Noga. In 2006 they moved to the Bay Area, California, and in 2008 moved to Alexis’s current location in Energy, Illinois. In 2009, as their work diverged, Alexis and Andrew split their business and Alexis continued working as simply Alexis Silk. Today she has work in galleries, museums and private and corporate collections around the country. She continues to define the frontier of conceptual expression in figurative hot sculpted glass.

Alexis Silk is a student of human form. She combines her knowledge of anatomy with her passion for fire to create female and male figures in cast metal and blown or solid glass. Her glass figures are sculpted free-hand while the glass is hot, without the use of molds. Many works incorporate steel frames or bases fabricated by the artist; some include found industrial hooks. While making intrinsically beautiful objects, the artist also targets issues of human nature, society, and the interrelationship of humans, nature and industry. Her work particularly explores objectification, body stereotypes, perceptual boxes, and sexuality as strength. Alexis received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2005. Since then she has continued to study under glass masters such as Pino Signoretto, Richard Royal and Boyd Sugiki. Since 2006 she has been working full time as an artist. Thanks to skills gained at Pilchuck Glass School and all places she gained experience, plus her own effort, her work is exhibited in galleries and fine art shows across the country.

The work of Alexis Silk is timeless. Working in cast bronze, hot sculpted blown glass and steel she explores interrelationships of humanity, culture and industry. Her primary subject is the human figure, dynamic or at repose, classical, familiar, and rich with meaning. Intrinsic beauty combines with conceptual depth.