Alex Sandvoss | I want to think about feminism, but I have to think about climate change

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Alex Sandvoss, "The Green New Deal"

Courtesy of the Artist.

I want to think about feminism, but I have to think about climate change is the latest exhibition from artist, Alex Sandvoss. Sandvoss is a Surrey-based artist who has received a great deal of media interest in the past five years. Her highly successful debut exhibition The Faces We Pass by Every Day, was an acclaimed portrait exhibition of people on the Downtown Eastside. She also received lots of attention for her 2020 exhibition, The Influencer, which shone a light on fast fashion and its devastating impact on the planet.

Just like Sandvoss’s previous exhibitions, her latest will feature works that challenge people to question the world, our reality, and to not remain a passive bystander but to take action. Sandvoss said, “I feel good about this show. It’s really a collection of work that is on its own journey. What’s interesting is how the work evolved as I painted. It started out so focused on feminism, but as I continued creating, the work transitioned into questioning roles that wealth and power play. They evolved into pretty intense criticisms of how the world works.”

For Sandvoss, using her creativity to question and challenge the status quo is intrinsic to who she is an artist. She said, “There are so many elements of our lives that I want to put under the spotlight including classism, racism, feminism, climate change—all of these and more go under the microscope in this new show. Something I find really messed up is how money and status grants people in power a free pass to do whatever they want.”

Since the pandemic, like many artists, Sandvoss took time to reflect on her life and her work. And this new collection is actually not the first body of work that she began creating during that time. In fact, she shelved another collection in favour of this work as it more accurately represented issues she feels are relevant to us all, the world we live in, and our responsibility to take action.

There will be a variety of prominent public figures featured in the exhibition that Sandvoss would like to be held accountable for their actions. The works includes a painting of Elon Musk, as well as a painting called Green New Deal which features multiple Jeff Bezos.

One of the works Sandvoss is most excited to display is a painting of the Supreme Court of the United States, featuring conservative leaders including Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell performing an autopsy on a dead woman. Sandvoss said the painting is not only a commentary on the repeal of Roe vs Wade, but also how decisions men in power make, and the effect on our planet. She said, “The day that the world found out through the leaked document that they were they were going to repeal Roe vs. Wade was unfathomable. That decision affects women all over the world.”

As well as people who Sandvoss would like to be held accountable, in the exhibition she also has portraits of changemakers she feels should be celebrated, including Naomi Klein and Noam Chomsky, the latter of whom is one of Sandvoss’s heroes.

Just as Sandvoss strives to highlight injustices in the world through art that tells a story, her own tale of how she came to be an artist is also remarkable. Sandvoss has no formal art training

and is self-taught (although she comes from a family of artists and musicians). She discovered

her natural talent for painting while studying for a music degree at McGill University. Initially, Sandvoss used painting as a release from the pressures of school, but quickly discovered

painting was the art form she communicated in most honestly.