Meet Alexia Weill, a talented Franco-Swiss artist whose large-scale sculptural installation La Vague was recently planted in the middle of Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Weill’s work explores women’s empowerment, geometry, and nature. A recent addition to the Uncommon Beauty Gallery artist roster in New York, Weill’s work will be featured during Art Basel Miami Beach at Aqua Art Miami this coming December.
We caught up with Alexia to discuss her recent success and upcoming projects!
AZ: Drink of choice?
AW: In Switzerland we have a very specific beverage called ‘Rivella’ made of pure milk with caramelized sugar. It’s delicious.
AZ: What is the one thing you’d never leave home without?
AW: Honestly, nothing at all. I am not attached to objects, but to people. If really had to choose something, it would be my phone. Only to be connected to my family and the people I love at any time.
Where are you currently based?
AW: I am based in Switzerland near the city of Montreux on Lake Geneva, where my latest sculpture, La Vague, is now on display.
AZ: Instagram handle?
AW: @weillalexia
AZ: Does Instagram and social media play a role in your life as an artist?
AW: Yes, I feel that to show and share my work on Instagram is very important. I enjoy sharing pictures of the studio, the workshop and my whole creative process with my audience on Instagram. To create in solitude and then be able to share that process with the public on social media is fantastic. It’s an amazing tool for artists to engage with an international audience and promote their own work.
AZ: Have you always thought of yourself as an artist? How and why did you first start creating?
AW: I have always had an artist’s soul. I grew up in an artistic environment. My grandfather was a painter, my grandmother was an actress, and my mother was a gallerist, so for me, being an artist was a natural choice. As a child, I did a lot of drawings. I then moved to creating clay sculptures because I felt I needed to create with my hands, to materialize the characters in my drawings. The characters were often female, goddesses and other symbols of femininity. The stone carving came last and is the medium I’m working with now.
AZ: We hear you are a staunch support of women’s rights and the power of the feminine spirit. We love that. How does working from a feminist mindset and belief system influence your work?
AW: Many of my sculptures and performances are inspired by and symbolic of femininity, the ultimate spirit of creation. I am also a bit of an activist, for the past five years, I have participated in ‘Equal Pay Day’ here in Switzerland to raise awareness about the unfair pay gap between men and women.
AZ: We understand you prefer to place and practice your art within natural environments such as the Swiss Glaciers and the Dubai desert. What is it about nature that inspires and informs your work?
AW: I try to harmonize with nature and let myself be inspired by it.
In Dubai, my live creation work in the desert was truly magical. The desert is a powerful place. Touching the sand, feeling the wind in my hair, watching the brilliant setting of the sun, I was inspired to create a large 10-meter mixed media artwork. On the massive canvas, I used different pigments, charcoal, and felt. I drew with my whole hands in any way that felt organic and natural. The filming of this project gave birth to DNA of the Desert, which is available via YouTube.
As for the glacier in Switzerland, I took inspiration from the breathtaking mountains and the amazing view of the glacier at 3,000 meters above sea level. For this upcoming commissioned piece, I have decided to create a granite sculpture that will serve as an emotional transcript of nature’s power, the goal of which is to put humans in their proper place, to respect nature and its ultimate power.
AZ: What is it about working with stone that is so appealing to you?
AW: Stones are alive; each one has its own personality. For me, stone represents the DNA of our planet. To know where a stone comes from, what exact quarry it was pulled from, this is to know its identity, its personal history.
When working with large scale stone sculptures, I sometimes spend days just harmonizing with it. It is like getting to know someone. The carving itself is like a journey, the stone will continue to inspire me along the way. I just give it another form to reveal its own beauty.
AZ: We noticed your work has been shown all over the world, and we hear you have some exciting news involving bringing your work to the United States.
AW: I am very proud to announce that I am now represented by the Uncommon Beauty Gallery in the United States! They already have plans to show my work in New York, Miami, and other U.S. locations. Gallery owners Beckie Warren and Jean-Noël Moneton were appealing to me because of their non-traditional approach to selling art, and their sensitivity to and belief in my work. The artist-gallery relationship is very important to me. The gallery should be able to talk about my work as if it were me speaking. Their desire to understand my work in order to share it accurately with a collector is exactly what I have found with Uncommon Beauty.
AZ: We hear you have recently revealed a new sculpture titled La Vague or “The Wave,” on view in the middle of Lake Geneva, for the Montreux Biennale 2019. Tell us about the inspiration and meaning behind this large-scale installation.
AW: Yes ! La Vague(The Wave ) is carved from African marble. It is a circular wave connected by the silhouette of a woman. It can also be seen as a coiled woman whose hair melts and transforms into the waves.
This sculpture is an homage to Camille Claudel (1864-1943), the legendary female sculptor who is nonetheless better known as being Auguste Rodin’s lover and model. The title of my work is the same as one of Claudel’s stone sculptures. Claudel’s La Vague features three identical female figures on bent knees as a massive wave looms overhead. In my version of La Vague, the female is given full agency. She strongly influences if not generates the tidal wave herself. She animates the water around while at the same time being a part of it.
It took a full year to create this sculpture, and I am thrilled to have it finally installed in Lake Geneva for everyone to enjoy. I feel this installation is an important step for me as an artist as the sculpture will take on meaning when observed and contemplated by the public. I am very happy because following this installation, my sculpture has already been met with success. People love the harmony of the stone circle with the lake and the mountain landscape that emerges in the background.
AZ: What is next for you?
AW: I will be exhibiting with Uncommon Beauty at Aqua Miami Beach 2019 and also the Architectural Digest Show 2020. For the remainder of 2019, I will keep working on my Swiss Glacier-inspired commission for display this November. I will also travel back to Dubai, Paris, Madrid, and, in 2020 Japan for a new project not yet announced.
