When the door closes…", 2018 by Alex Hodge
Porcelain cup with sgraffito detailing
4.5 in. x 3 in. W x 3 in.

This cup is one of 48 that make up the installation, “Fragments of Our Love Story.” These cups feature feminine forms which recall the Venus of Willendorf and other historical fertility objects. The carvings include many of my own writings and flow from one cup to another. Just as we hold each other’s stories in pieces and parts, the cups now exist throughout time and space, with many collectors. No two have the same words, making each unique in body, color, and content.
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Alex Hodge grew up on a blueberry farm in South Georgia where she learned the value of cultivating the earth. Currently based in Miami, Florida, Hodge focuses on prioritizing women’s narratives in all aspects of her work. Her poetic porcelain objects examine and reimagine the history of art in a way that values women, not only in body, but in wholeness, power, and love. By combining sculptural and drawn elements, such as carved and painted patterns, her works create a dialogue between space and line, form and surface for a dynamic viewing experience. Often limiting her color palette to black and white, she uses the carving technique called sgraffito to incise her pieces with drawings, her own text, and pattern. Focusing on the narrative qualities of art-making, Hodge weaves stories into the clay which are both personal and universal. Through the decorative and symbolic details, she hints at narratives without completing them to invite the viewer to participate in creating meaning. The women she invents exist in the present but are of the imagined future in which we all have room to flourish, tell our stories, give and receive love, and express the beauty and pain of the human condition. Fundamentally, her artworks are a celebration of the tenacity and vulnerability of women and clay, an interplay of history and hope.