Alexis Gideon

Born and raised in New York City, Gideon was consumed by an intensive study of jazz at La Guardia High School for Music & Art and the Performing Arts (the "Fame" high school). Gideon further developed his craft under the mentorship of legendary musical visionary Anthony Braxton at Wesleyan University. Gideon is noted equally for his diversity of influences and the crystal-clear vision that fuses disparate elements into something fresh, smart and transcendent.

As an animator, video artist, composer and performer, Alexis Gideon creates richly textured video operas that give audiences something they have never experienced before. Vibrant animated stories unfold on a large screen as the artist performs his masterfully constructed musical compositions alongside them, with all the lyrics matching the puppet characters' singing and movement. While the art form itself is innovative, it is Gideon's unique trans-stylistic visual and sonic language that is most remarkable, and that renders the work at once supremely grounded and utterly magical. Manhattan's New Museum recently paired Gideon with William Kentridge in a joint show; Gideon's performance of his latest piece coupled with a screening of three Kentridge films highlighted the two artists' shared lyrical sensibility, embrace of multimedia, and intellectual exploration of class, isolation and the essential complexities of being human.

Gideon's work has been shown and performed in 11 countries, including at: Moderna Museet (Stockholm, Sweden); New Museum of Contemporary Art (Manhattan); Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco); Vdrome; Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson; Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus); Time Zones Festival (Bari, Italy); Suedpol (Luzerne, Switzerland); Centre d'Art Bastille (Grenoble, France); and HBC Gallery, (Berlin, Germany).

Gideon has been awarded an artist-in-residence grant by the Investing in Professional Artists Program, a partnership of The Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments, to complete his latest video opera The Crumbling at The New Hazlett Theater. He has also been awarded two project grants from the Regional Arts and Culture Council of Oregon. His collaborative project with Oudeis (France) was funded by the European Union (FEDER), The Languedoc-Roussillon Regional Council, Languedoc-Rousillon DRAC, and The Gard Council.

Gideon's work has been translated into French, Spanish, German, Italian and Chinese and has been included in the Chinese culture curriculum at Oregon State University. He has been a juror for the Student Independent Exhibition at the Cleveland Institute of Art as well as a guest artist for the MFA Integrative Seminar critique at Carnegie Mellon University. He has lectured at SUNY (Stoneybrook), Kawenga Digital Arts and Culture Center (Montpellier, France), Washington State University, University of New Mexico (Albuquerque), University of Oklahoma (Tulsa), and the Portland Art Museum, among others.