Alona Weiss is a multidisciplinary artist working with a variety of mediums, including ink drawing, painting, video, movement, performance, printmaking, typography, graphic design, and writing.
She lives and works in the Hudson Valley, Upstate New York.
Her work examines the transient nature of belief systems, the interplay between matter and meaning, and the human desire to be remembered in the face of mortality. Over the past decade, she has focused on exploring movement and stillness through personal and collective lenses. This exploration spans the movement of time, the stillness of memorial monuments, the embodiment of ideologies, and the shifting emotional landscapes of the psyche.
In recent years, ink drawing has become her primary medium, through which she shapes deeper connections between art and healing.
She holds an MFA from Parsons / The New School, NYC, and a BDES from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, in Jerusalem. Her work has been exhibited and screened internationally at prominent museums, galleries, and venues including: The Kitchen (NYC), the Hall of Fame for Great Americans (Bronx); Lincoln Center (NYC); 601 Artspace (NYC); Lesley Heller Workspace (NYC); the Haifa Museum of Art (Israel); the Beijing Film Triennial (China); Arad Contemporary Art Center (Israel); El Museo de Los Sures (Brooklyn); Genia Schreiber Gallery (TLV); Local Projects (Queens); the Fikra Biennial (UAE); Verse/Work (Red Hook, NY); GlenLily Grounds (Newburgh, NY); and RUTHANN gallery (Catskill, NY).
She has participated in public programs at Bronx Community College Archives & Special Collections, The Neighborhood, Brooklyn, Columbia University Teachers College, and Columbia University School of the Arts in New York. Her work has been featured in publications including Wall Street International, Haaretz Art & Culture, Droste Effect Magazine, HuffPost, Erev Rav, Blouin Artinfo, Unbag Magazine, and Artis Podcast ‘Voices From the Studio’.
Portrait by Louise (Lou) Stella Lauren, Brooklyn, NY
Portrait by Mike Roth, Newburgh, NY
Artist Statement
Throughout the past decade, I’ve explored personal and collective belief systems, the interplay between matter and meaning, and the strive to be remembered in the face of mortality.
Using video, performance, drawing, installation, sculpture, and writing, I positioned myself in the shadow of structures that attempt to freeze time, but inevitably fail as time moves on and values and ideologies shift. I focused on public monuments as objects that embody these changes.
During this time, my life underwent profound transformations: I immigrated, married, became a mother, and lost both my parents. These pivotal experiences of love and loss led me to focus on drawing with ink and forge a deeper connection to healing through art.
I use natural inks and watercolors on paper and silk. I infuse the inks with herbal remedies that carry therapeutic properties and leave energetic and alchemical marks in the drawings.
Ink, with its life force and unpredictability, allows a dance between my intentions and the brush’s guidance. I navigate the balance between control and surrender, channeling transformation and intuition.
I perceive the drawings as pieces in a puzzle, mini monuments that commemorate emotions, thoughts, and states of mind. A bridge between my psyche and the world.
