Artist Bio
Alyssa Todd Follansbee is a multimedia artist based in Beacon, New York. Her work explores the impermanence and ambiguity of the human experience using vivid color palettes and figurative subjects.
Alyssa grew up as the youngest of three daughters in Mystic, Connecticut. She studied figurative oil painting and sculpture at Indiana University- Bloomington, Intaglio Printmaking and Artists Books at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice, Italy. She graduated with a B.A. in Studio Art and a minor in Art History from Indiana University in 2009, and went on to earn her Masters in Art Education from Brooklyn College in 2014. After working as a New York City public school art teacher, she now devotes her time to creating art, collaborating with her art collective Super Secret Projects, operating her business Happy Valley Arcade Bar, and raising her children in Beacon, New York.
Utilizing figurative subject matter with surrealist elements, her paintings reflect themes of self-image, mental health, loss, and family. Although her figures are typically studied from life and photographs, exaggerated color palettes and simplified imagery serve to distort the representational into the realm of memory and imagination. Realistic imagery, invented patterns and flattened, painterly forms are juxtaposed to convey ambiguity and defy absolutism. Reflective of an ever present fascination with the push and pull between our experience in our physical space and our own private minds, her work seeks to inspire viewers to feel more alive and more connected with one another.
CV
Education
2014 Masters of Art Education, Honors, CUNY Brooklyn College, USA
2009 Bachelor of Arts- Studio Art, Honors, Indiana University- Bloomington, USA
Solo Exhibitions
July 2023 Interior Super Secret Projects Gallery, Beacon, New York
July 2022 Can I Have A Minute? BAU Gallery, Beacon, New York
Group Exhibitions
2023 Human Zoo at the Haunted Mill, Wassaic Project, Wassaic, New York
2023 Identity, Super Secret Projects, Beacon New York
2023 Distortion: Subverting Reality, Distortion Society, Beacon, New York
2023 Beacon Open Studios Group Show, Hudson Beach Glass, Beacon, New York
2023 Wappingers Rises Community Streetside Artist Exhibit, Wappingers, New York
2023 Winter Art Show, The Yard, Beacon, New York
2023 Perspective, Super Secret Projects, Beacon New York
2023 Radiate, BAU Gallery, Beacon, New York
2023 Duality, Super Secret Projects, Beacon New York
2022 Upstate Art Weekend Beacon Arts Show, Hudson Beach Glass, Beacon, New York
2021 I Am Woman, Howland Cultural Center, Beacon, New York
2021 Emergence, BAU Gallery, curated by Samanta De Tillio, Beacon, New York
2020 Beacon Open Studios Group Show, Happy Valley, Beacon, New York
2018 The Art of Fashion- Project Runway Art Installation for Season 17 Semi Finals, Brooklyn, New York
2016 Fashion Week Underground F/W 2016, 50 Ave B., Manhattan, New York
2012 Look and See, Vegan Gallery, 2153 Division Street, Chicago, Illinois
2011 Art of Film, 1913 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, Illinois
2009 Indiana University FSA Group Show, Bloomington, Indiana
2009 Artist Book Show, Scuola Internazionale di Grafica, Venice, Italy
Gallery Experience
2023 Super Secret Projects- founding member
2022 BAU Gallery, Beacon, New York
2013 Morpho Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
2008 Granary Art Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts