Alexandra Metcalf
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Biography
Born 1992 in London, UK
Lives and works in Berlin, Germany
Alexandra Metcalf works in painting and sculpture, reinterpreting the history of gendered labor through ornamental traditions. Metcalf considers the way historic counter-culture movements shape aesthetics, with the intense patterns and coloring of her paintings representing domestic landscapes full of anxiety. Metcalf mythologizes a dramatic descent into madness through exaggerated yet self-aware images related to historically established notions of femininity. One could see this as a satire of literary tropes or an attempt to depict the heightened levels of dramatic tension characteristic of operatic storytelling, where most things are to be seen in parentheses. Her fascination with craft is coupled with attempts to regender labor-intensive mediums historically seen as masculine, including stained glass, bronze casting, and handcrafted woodwork.
Alexandra Metcalf graduated from the Chelsea College of Art and Design, London and Rhode Island School of Design, Providence. Her work has recently been exhibited at No. 9 Cork Street, London; FRAC Corsica, Corte; Forde, Geneva; Kunsthalle Zürich; Champ Lacombe, Biarritz; 15 Orient Gallery, New York and Ginny on Frederick, London. Metcalf’s work is held in The Museum of Modern Art Library Collection, New York; The Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, Brown University, Providence and The Perimeter, London.
A solo exhibition by Alexandra Metcalf will open at The Perimeter, London, in May 2025.
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Metcalf sometimes uses decoupage, that is, a collagelike craft technique for decorating objects with paper cut-outs sealed with varnish, as a way of both inserting legible pictures into her painted compositions and at the same time reminding us that these works are never anything but tangible objects not unlike the sorts of knickknacks and furniture that the procedure is normally used to embellish.
–Barry Schwabsky
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Works
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Alexandra MetcalfMushroom Cloud Repetition, 2024Oil on canvas, Artist’s frameSigned verso203 x 143 cm
79.9 x 56.3 inches -
Alexandra MetcalfThe Very Strongest Cords, 2023Oil and decoupage on linen, Artist’s frame41.9 x 52.1 cm
16.5 x 20.5 inches -
Alexandra MetcalfSelf-Care in the Age of Atomic Dread, 2024Oil, watercolor and charcoal on canvas, Artist’s frameSigned verso203 x 143 cm
79.9 x 56.3 inches -
Alexandra MetcalfAnother-kind-of-havoc!, 2024Oil on linen, Artist’s frameInitialed verso103 x 153.2 cm
40.5 x 60 inches -
Alexandra MetcalfThe Rest Cure, 2024Oil and decoupage on linen, Artist’s frameInitialed verso103.5 x 123 cm
41 x 48.5 inches
Collection The Perimeter, London -
Alexandra Metcalfo mystery, o misery, 2024Oil and decoupage on linen, Artist’s frameInitialed verso103 x 153.2 cm
40.5 x 60 inches -
Alexandra MetcalfThe Rising Globus/Womb, 2024Wood and leaded glass400 x 30 x 30 cm
157.5 x 11.8 x 11.8 inches -
Alexandra MetcalfThe Rocking Woman, 2024Thonet wood, millinery block, cathedral glass, lead came, stockings and buttons72 x 112 x 23 cm
28.3 x 44 x 9 inches -
Alexandra MetcalfThe Incident of Being There, 2024Found door, hardware, wood and leaded glass180 x 65 x 75 cm
70.9 x 25.6 x 29.5 inches -
Alexandra MetcalfThe transcendence of this polarity, 2024Oil on linen, Artist’s frame183 x 273 cm
72 x 107.5 inches -
Alexandra MetcalfMimodrama, 2023Oil, decoupage and cold wax on canvas, Artist’s frame78.7 x 154.9 cm
31 x 61 inches -
Alexandra MetcalfDyad’s, 2023-2024Cast glass, bronze, glass droplet and siliconeDimensions variable
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Alexandra MetcalfHah-bandonment, 2024Oil on canvas, Artist’s frameInitialed verso100 x 150 cm
39.4 x 59 inches -
Alexandra MetcalfFurther Jane, 2024Oil on linen, Artist’s frameInitialed verso61.2 x 93.5 cm
24.1 x 36.8 inches -
Alexandra MetcalfAntipsychotic Flower, 2023Steel, iron, buttons, wood, nylon, paint, glass and silicone
190 x 135 x 110 cm
74.8 x 53.2 x 43.3 inches -
Alexandra MetcalfRemastered Historical Recording 4, 2023Glass UV print, nylon, wooden canes, aluminum, steel and hardware205.7 x 162.6 x 7.6 cm
81 x 64 x 3 inches -
Alexandra MetcalfCrib 1, 2023Southern pine and buttons233.7 x 101.6 x 55.9 cm
92 x 40 x 22 inches -
Alexandra MetcalfCrushed, 2019Wood, nylon, resin, bronze, pennies, velvet and eyeshadow129.5 x 17.8 x 15.2 cm
51 x 7 x 6 inches -
Alexandra MetcalfLabile, 2023Oil and decoupage on linen, Artist’s frame153 x 122 cm
60.2 x 48 inches
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Exhibitions
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External Exhibitions
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Press