Alexis Smith

"Working from inside American popular culture, Alexis Smith makes direct use of our shared values, fears, and aspirations to create an art that is both extremely private and remarkably plain-speaking. This is no simple matter, for Smith's art is deeply rooted in the narrative forms of Conceptualism... Smith produces a profoundly moral art confronting social issues from a psychologically charged perspective. ...the artist is best understood in the Symbolist tradition, and it is that quality, served well by her dry wit, that elevates her unique constructions above most common narrative work. That she often draw her themes from Hollywood film culture and the pulp fiction universe only adds to the lure of legibility which underscores Smith's desire to include her reader-viewer in her compelling vision."--from foreword.