The Next Generation – Alexandra Iosub

Travels Between Realms

Alexandra Iosub swims through universes when creating. One gets the feeling that the figures, scapes, and scenes which emerge layer by layer wherever the artist makes marks, are remnants from exploratory deep dives, brought to the surface. Based in North Idaho, the artist seemingly dips into different planes and worlds as often as possible. From the areas of woodworking, yarn-making, printing, music, and more, Iosub is not only always immersed in the artistic realm, but is constantly extracting from it images and artifacts of mystery and reflection. But more than merely extracting and collecting from each and every endeavor, the pinnacle of what the artist is most concerned with creating and exploring, is a personal world where no definitions or delineations are needed. Here, drawings are immortal. They morph to become part of one another while their imagery and patterns at first so filled with mystery are really interconnected. Like every world full of living things, Alexandra Iosub’s is made up of delicate and critical links. It’s a world with beautiful fundamentals and infinite ways to expand.

Part One: Who is Alexandra Iosub?

Question #2: Who are you as an artist?

I used to think of myself as wearing different (and separate) hats like artist, woodworker, educator, etc., but my intention is to build a lifestyle that lets the different aspects of my intellect flow seamlessly. I have a keen interest in neurobiology, with meditation as the access point to my own mind: I don\’t think the separations between subjects of learning is natural or beneficial. The brain has no fences, so why shouldn\’t we think about everything as interconnected? I am a trained printmaker, but life has pushed me to make do with other ways of mark-making, to question the nature of the mark, and so I am exploring the inbetween spaces of drawing and printmaking, while looking into the intersection between body and space, through relationships, rituals, and restrictions. My next project will be a book laying all this out.

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Question #3: In terms of your artistic journey, why are you here and where are you going?

HERE is a result of an unpredictable course of events marked by a determination to keep my freedom as a maker. In fact, I intentionally refuse to be a consumer unless absolutely necessary. As an artist, I am trained to problem-solve, because making art is indeed a continuous stream of problem-creating-and-solving. So I am here because I refuse to take for granted the definition of life this culture insists upon, and I am following the advice Heidegger gives in his essay \”Building, dwelling, thinking\”. I am silently carving my own place in this world, towards the unknown.

Question #4: What do you absolutely need your audience to know about you or your work?

Everything is connected. My woodworking informs my drawings. My passion for wool informs my narrative sources of inspiration. Literature plays a big part in the word play that inspires imagery. Music is always playing when I work, and the textures made by the different instruments find their way in the way I layer my compositions. I use my whole brain when I create visual work. Sometimes is works. Sometimes it doesn\’t, but it\’s always interesting.

Question #5: What has the process of making art taught you or given you?

At first, art was a refuge. An outlet to pour forth grief. As the practice grew, it became therapy through movement and repetition, and the process became more important. The separate parts of making art (inspiration, medium, venue, presentation) lost their edges and became interchangeable and subservient to the conceptual process, while life and practice merged. Now the process of making art is a lifestyle. It\’s happening all the time in between specifics, avoiding the performative and focusing on the relational.
The art making process is first and foremost a problem solving process with art work as documentation. I think it works to heal the maker because it\’s meant to tackle bigger issues.

Question #6: What keeps you going?

Every single person in this world is trying to find the answer to this question because it is absolutely necessary for one\’s continued existence. It is the question behind every midlife crisis. Why am I here and why should I continue to be?
I have the sense that I am about to stumble upon something great if I continue on the path I have crafted for myself over these couple decades. It\’s a very new feeling. I don\’t know how it will manifest, but I will find a way to share it with the world. Right now, I have a book to look forward to.

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Part Two: Bridges Between

How would you describe your work and practice?

My finished gallery pieces are generally a mix of drawing and printmaking. I often tear into old drawings to use as backgrounds, or layer fresh paper on unfinished work. The essential change is the context. The mark is codified into recognizable patterns, a portrait, a body, a space. The artwork is the bridge between concept and the real world using all the tools at my disposal, so – as a bridge – it is simply built to withstand the back and forth of meaning.

Where/ How can Vacant Museum viewers see more of your work and where can they purchase it?

I have some work available on my website, http://www.alexandraiosub.com/shop more images available on http://www.alexandraiosub.com/galleries contact me for more information http://www.alexandraiosub.com/about