Alex Garant

As an artist who has worked mostly with portraiture during my career I am always looking for people that can take that classic form and push it somewhere else. Alex Garant's work struck me when it popped up on one of the many contemporary art curation sites I follow on social media. The way that realism is combined with double vision is not only very technically impressive to me, but I feel that it is the type of work that would inspire the viewer to walk across the gallery to take a closer look. I am also interested in the idea of how much distortion can be used without losing the subject itself. Whereas, I have engaged in the distortion of the subject in some portraiture, it is always interesting and inspiring to see a different approach.

According to her interview with Wall Pop magazine: Everything is an evolution based on a previous idea. I first started playing with compositional symmetry – mostly vertical mirror effects. Then I wanted to push this concept more and started experimenting with duplicating images horizontally which lead to the double eyes concept. Then, I wanted to play on the physical response of the double eyes pieces, when your vision tries to adjust and adapt the image for full comprehension. I thought I could push the idea even further. By creating the blur series, I feel like I can truly engage the viewer in the piece, looking at it becomes more than just looking at something pretty, it becomes an extra sensorial experience, or at least that is what I am aiming for.