PRACTICE

Alexis Emilia Studio was founded as a mobile laboratory for discovery. My studio practice was born of a lifelong fascination about belonging, home, and what constitutes identity. That inquisitiveness found an orderly method of production at Goddard College, where I earned an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art and arrived at a simple, quite unruly truth: everything is art. Once that truth codified into internal law, I was free to create on my own terms without regard to external expectations. Art jewelry is the primary language of my studio practice. I approach jewelry as an artistic medium through which I investigate material, color, texture, form, and how we create our identity through the objects we select to adorn our bodies. My work draws freely from sculpture, textiles, found materials, traditional and innovative craft techniques, and the visual languages encountered through travel, allowing each piece to emerge through experimentation and play. 

Initially, I founded my studio after achieving my undergraduate degree then took a long hiatus to pursue a career in the public sector. After an early retirement from federal service, I finally made room for international travel, a dream long deferred. The knowledge I've gained from learning traditional techniques from the societies I've encountered in my travels become the foundation of my innovations and experiments.

Born in south New Jersey to a military family with roots in Oklahoma, North Carolina, New Jersey, Haiti, England, and Jamaica, I spent my childhood in Europe and Asia, where an early preoccupation with literature and film taught me to imagine future worlds. Wanderlust drives my work beyond imposed limits. Based in Northern Virginia and Thailand, I am currently conducting experiments throughout the enthralling Asian continent.