TERRI STILES ALKAYALI, M.A.,M.F.A

EDUCATION
California State University,Fullerton, M.A. M.F.A.
Saddleback College, Mission Viejo, CA
California State University, Long Beach
Rocky Mountain School of Art, Denver, Colorado
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, B.F.A.
University of Colorado, Boulder
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2002
Banking on Art, Solo Show, Laguna Beach, CA
2000
Richard Martinez Gallery, Solo Show, Santa Ana, CA
1999
Denise Roperge Gallery, Group Show Palm Desert, CA
1998
Gallery 57, Group Show, Pomona CA
1997
Sine Phragments, Group Show, The Caged Chameleon Gallery, Santa Ana, CA
1996
A Backward Glance, Group Show, Saddleback College Art Gallery, Mission Viejo, CA •
Josyln Cultural Center, Group Show, Torrance, CA • Pressure Sensitive, Group Show, Downey Museum of Art, Downey, CA • No Stark Reality, Solo Show, West Gallery, Fullerton, CA • Multiplicity, Group Show, Sight and Sound Gallery, Fullerton, CA
1995
Art Institute of Southern California, Group Show, Laguna Beach, CA • Multiple Impressions, Group Show, Millard Sheets Gallery, Pomona, CA • Carte Blanche, Group Show, City of Brea Gallery, Brea, CA • Great Prints: European Modernist and the Next Near Wave, Group Show, Muckenthaler Cultural Center, Fullerton, CA • Gallery 57, Group Show, Fullerton, CA
1994
Art Institute of Southern California, Group Show, Laguna Beach, CA • Lasting Impressions, Sight and Sound Gallery, Fullerton, CA
1990
Laguna Hills Gallery, Solo Show, Laguna Hills, CA

CORPORATE COLLECTIONS
Olen Properties. Inc. Five Continent Enterprise, Inc.

McGrath Co. Inc. Fidelity, Inc.

Pacific Coast Properties, Inc. Medco, Inc.

World Future Society

 

GRANTS
Art Alliance Tribute Fund, 1995

ART IN PUBLIC PLACES
Saddleback College Mural Project 1990-1991, Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center, Mission Viejo, CA

EXPERIENCE
Colorado State University-
President Student Art Advisory Council
Representative Fine Art Series Council
Representative Humanities Council
Teaching Assistant

California State University
Curator
Graduate Teaching Assistant

Volunteer and paid teaching arts/crafts positions with developmentally disabled children and adults, convalescent adults, children with special needs and community Imagination Celebrations.

PUBLICATIONS

Orange County Register
Daily Pilot
OC Weekly
Orange County News
The Beach Reporter
Daily Bulletin
Lariat
Beyond the Horizon –Pageant of the Masters Program

Imagine you are digging in your garden. Suddenly, your shovel hits a metal object. Upon examining this enigmatic object you feel baffled, intrigued. You want immediate answers, some clues into the object’s meaning. Is it from the past, the present, or the future… what is it? Why was it made? What does it signify?

The first thing to know about the art of Terri Stiles Alkayali is that it invites questions rather than answers them. Similarly, Socrates determined that he was wiser than another man because “he thinks he knows when he doesn’t, whereas I, given that I don’t know, am at least aware that I don’t know.” This reasoning is also why Alkayali uses elusive titles such as ARISTOI, ERGO and CERBERUS. Her cryptic titles support an open-ended approach to her art, offering not one, but several interpretations. There is no effortless explanation. We have to dig into our psyches for understanding, like a gardener probing the soil, to unearth our knowledge, responses, experiences, memories and emotions.

What is it about these works which make them seem ancient or advanced or even ageless? The surfaces of certain bronzes appear to be worn, porous, dredged out of an ancient sea (as in ARISTOI), they may be burnished, polished and unaffected by time (as in CERBERUS). Some of her creations are symmetrical, some baroque and dynamic; there is no single formula. Each work literally stands on its own with presence and power.

Her whimsical fusion of organic and mechanical parts parallels Picasso, as when he created a baboon our of a child’s metal automobile. The visual puns of Alkayali and Picasso involve the intermingling of the everyday and the intangible. Her spirit of hallowed playfulness also links her to another artist, Paul Klee, with his magical fish theatres, twittering machines, hybrid forms and quirky inventions. There is great depth in Alkayali’s creations, and the sudden surprise of finding a metal cap or recognizable household vestige in one of these fascinating objects is startling. It makes you wonder about your earlier conviction… what is this?

Terri Stiles Alkayali is an artist who probes into the sacred and arcane aspects of life with a sense of humor. In this, Alkayali, like Cervantes’ Don Quixote, reminds us that humor can teach us some of life’s more valuable lessons. It teaches you to wonder, to ask questions and avoid easy answers. You also realize that it is not possible to get to the core of Alkayali’s work; and this is how she wants it. As in life itself, her art refuses to fit into easily defined categories or simple one-liners and for this we should be grateful, for genuine art provokes insights; it forces us back into ourselves. Because art begins in the spirit and speaks to the spirit, in the end, we are left with art, our questions and our imaginations.

William Havlicek
writer and former museum curator