Alex Gray

Throughout the semester, we have learned a variety of concepts within modern and contemporary art while learning to interpret a reasonable number of works of art from a pool of artists. Giving the opportunity to interpret different works of art has helped shape the perceptions I have when it comes to interpreting these works. Being able to shape my own perceptions has led to the development of my own creative thinking style. Having stated the previous statements, I decided to do my final paper on Alex Grey. Alex Grey was a contemporary artist who seemed to closely relate many of his works to realistic or humanistic experiences. Coinciding with these claims, some of Grey’s work also have an ethnocentric feel to them because of little references he makes within the pieces themselves.
During Grey’s life, he worked in an anatomy department and oftentimes studied his own body when he was not busy preparing for dissections. He also worked as a research technologist in the department of mind and body medicine which also sparked his interest in his Sacred Geometry works. Because of the background in sciences that Grey has, it is evident what sparks his interest on many of the works he created. Some of his works include but are not limited to New Man New Woman, Pregnancy, Birth, and Kissing. Having a first glimpse at the name of his artworks,
I could tell that he was intrigued by humans and their natural state.
The first piece of artwork that I decided to look at was New Man New Woman. When I first looked at this picture, I immediately identified the anatomy aspect of the piece. The brain was easily identified and looked so surreal and it seems as if he were trying to create a third eyeball within the center of the forehead. Grey’s prior background in the science field helped develop his own creative thinking style dealing with skeletons. Another work where Grey uses the skeletons is in Kissing. In this work, he was very particular about his color selections and many of them closely resemble the actual human body. He was very specific with detail. One thing that I found interesting with this work is that there is a flame in each skeletons heart with a rope connecting the two. This rope to me symbolizes that there may be a spark between the two. There are also two more flames in their brains with a rope connected which to me symbolizes a mind-body connection. Although the two works have very similar aspects, they still have very different symbolic meanings with Kissing being more unique.
The next two works of Grey go hand-in-hand with one another and are entitled Pregnancy and Birth. In the work Pregnancy, the details were a little more graphic but the overall meaning of it is simply amazing and completely normal. In the corner of the work, there is what seems to be a jewel with a flower and throughout the pregnancy of the woman, it grows inside of the baby. This same jewel is in each of the parents as well with a rope connecting it to all three of them, which brings up the topic of mind-body connection once again. The next work Birth shows a woman giving birth. There were many strange things going on within this work and a few symbols can be seen everywhere. The jewel/flower is still seen in the baby and mother as she is giving birth and Grey’s use of multiple faces in the background shows the intensity of the birth. Grey also uses warmer colors to represent pain.
Grey was an artist who envisioned many realistic events when completing his works.
He was greatly influenced by his earlier careers in science which can easily be identified because most of his works, if not all are skeleton oriented. His works also seem to be centered around the idea of the human life cycle and how the body works. He uses the idea of mind, body, and soul connections to intertwine all of his works together and most can be identified with his symbolic flame and rope. Overall, I enjoyed looking over his works because the creativity and effort put into them is something that takes a substantial amount of skills to
apply.