Alexis Peskine

Artist

Born in Paris in 1979, Alexis Peskine holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Howard University, Washington, DC and a Master of Arts in Digital Arts and a Master of Fine Arts from M.I.C.A., Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Peskine is a 2004 Fulbright scholar. Early on in his life, Peskine was exposed to questions of identity: his grandfathers, Boris, a Jewish engineer survived a concentration camp, and Antonio, an Afro Brazilian carpenter raised his family in the inner city of Salvador, Bahia. Peskine’s signature works are large-scale mixed media ‘portraits’ of the African diaspora, which are rendered by hammering gold gilded nails of different gauge, with pin-point accuracy, into wood stained with coffee and mud to create composite images. He depicts figures that portray strength and perseverance, with energy reminiscent of the spiritually charged Minkisi ‘power figures’ of the Congo Basin. He also produces photography and video works. Since 2013, Peskine has mentored Afro descendant men and women from various parts of the World and given them opportunities to accompany him in his residency projects to engage with and further understand the art world, as well as exchanging and bonding with other mentees from other parts of the our planet.