Alexis Deise

Alexis's quilts explore the intersection of traditional craft and modern expression, incorporating motifs and techniques from traditional quilts and bringing the form into a contemporary context.  

 

Ongoing series work includes Alexis's "kintsugi" quilts, which are inspired by the kintsugi aesthetic tradition in Japanese pottery.  These quilts, their traditional surfaces interrupted by "repairs," explore themes of perfectionism and idealization as they relate to the history of craft and domesticity and the present-day work and lives of women. 

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Past projects include: "American Quilts," a meditation on the epidemic of gun violence in America; Irish Chain Variations, a yearlong study of the traditional form;  and "Quilts for Ruth," a series of quilts based on the feminist jurisprudence of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

 

Alexis's quilts have been exhibited at the National Quilt Museum, San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, Schweinfurth Art Center, Arlington Center for the Arts, and Mosesian Center for the Arts, among others, and have been collected by the International Quilt Museum and Study Center at the University of Nebraska and by numerous private collectors.

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Alexis lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts with her family.  She holds a BA in Art History and Theater Studies from Swarthmore College and a  JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.