AGE: 28
BASED IN: New York
Encounters with a place or person are often the seed for Alix Vernet’s distinctly downtown body of work. The recent Yale Sculpture MFA grad pours her collected observations—of a pair of caryatids reigning over St. Marks Place, say, or a NYC Parks monument technician power washing—into a laundry list of materials (cheese cloth, spray paint, stoneware). The resulting sculptural ephemera has made its way into shows at Market Gallery, Museion, and Helena Anrather.
Describe one work you’ve made that captures who you are as an artist.
A lot of my projects begin through interactions that I extend further. I recently invented a job for myself as a prayer collector. It started when I ran into a church by accident to get out of the rain and got talking with the custodian. He told me about what it’s like to work there (a big project was peeling gum from under the 300 pews), he was not religious, but part of his job was interacting with visitors between sermons. When the priest isn’t there, he fulfills this de facto role of custodian for the world’s troubles and desires. In a way, I think that’s what an artist is.
I started to see him more often and eventually helped with one of his tasks: collecting and refilling prayer cards in the pews, some of which just had scribbles and profanities. The priest explained to me that once the prayers are “processed” they get put into the recycling. It’s a storage problem to hold onto everyone’s prayers. I began coming weekly to refill and collect the cards. The way things can be disposable yet sacred, the way materials can temporarily be imbued with a sort of power, and how we try to hold onto something until it goes to the trash. I think that’s what art is for me.
Describe your work in three words.
Fits in purse.
What’s an artwork you didn’t make, but wish you had?
I don’t know if one artist can ever make another’s work because we all just have different gunk in our hearts that we deal with and that comes into our gestures. I do, however, love Yuji Agematsu’s “Zips.”
Is there a studio rule you live by?
That even the smallest increments of time you put into your practice have value, even if you can only find 10 minutes to research something, or 15 to test something and it fails, it matters. There can be a lot of pressure to be as efficient as possible with studio time, especially with other jobs and stuff going on. Whenever I get frustrated with not having enough time to be in the studio or feel like I’m not doing enough, I try to just start with five minutes.
What art-world trend would you like to see die out?
Seltzer waters replacing beers at openings. It’s hard enough to make small talk under fluorescents.
See CULTURED‘s full 2025 Young Artists list and access other individual artist profiles here.
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