Biography

Alyson Souza was born in 1968 and grew up in Western Massachusetts. Growing up with a father who is an artist and mother who is a graphic designer, Alyson knew as a very young child that art would be her life’s work. At seventeen, she received a full scholarship to the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City. After graduating, her work appeared in several group shows in lower Manhattan. In 1993 she began to work in wood, constructing intricate three-dimensional oil paintings. She did so in the east village, until 1997, when she moved to Los Angeles. There, she began to work on life sized wooden figures painted in oil. These pieces often had moving parts operated with levers and wheels. She had her first solo exhibition entitled Mind Matters in 2000, at the Robert Berman Gallery in Santa Monica. In 2003 Alyson received a grant from The Ucross Foundation in Wyoming where she completed a six-week residency. She then began building a series of three dimensional portraits. Each of these had stories that appeared in shadow boxes built into their heads. Text became very important in her pieces not only to tell the story but as a design element. Alyson’s love of type faces can be traced back to the pages of old press type she played with as a child. These were sheets of typefaces that could be transferred by rubbing onto paper. They were used primarily by graphic designers like her mother, before all things digital. Alyson’s next solo show was entitled Anatomy of Dysfunction, for which she received “Pick of the Week” in LA Weekly. Souza’s work then became political and somewhat darker. She abandoned the human figure and began painting animals that represented people. Alyson chose lizards, snakes and birds primarily for the repetitive patterns found in scales and feathers. Alyson has since shown throughout the United states. In 2012 she began to design works around found objects. She combined these with her traditional style of oil painting. These works had a much more simplified composition but the complexity and detail in the painting increased. She began showing at Coagula Curatorial in 2014 where Mat Gleason encouraged her to make large installation pieces as part of her exhibitions. Alyson currently lives and works in Los Angeles with her husband, filmmaker Michael Hilf and her dog Diego.