Alex Grey

He was born as Alex Velzy into a middle class family. His father was a graphic designer who encouraged his son’s drawing abilities.

He became interested in the concept of death. He would collect dead animals and insects and give them a ritualistic burial in his backyard.

He won a scholarship to attend the Columbus College of Art and Design in 1971. He dropped out in 1973 and painted billboards in Ohio for a year.

He went to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to study with the conceptual artist Jay Jaroslav for one year (1974-75). He met his wife Allyson Rymland there and the two would experiment with LSD to induce mystical experiences.

He then went to Harvard Medical School where he worked in the Anatomy department for five years studying the corpses and preparing them for dissection. His experience at the medical school greatly influenced his artworks.

He began working as a research technologist at Harvard’s department of Mind/Body Medicine under Dr. Herbert Benson and Dr. Joan Borysenko during the 1970s. He conducted experiments in subtle healing energies.

He started working on a series of art actions in 1972 that depicted rites of passage by presenting stages of a developing psyche. He conducted around 50 performance rites over a period of 30 years.

He began working on a series of 21 life-sized paintings known as the Sacred Mirror series in 1979. He used an ‘x-ray’ style of painting ,which depicted the material, mental and spiritual aspects of human life. It took him 10 years to complete the series.

He was invited to do illustration work for medical journals after doctors saw his ‘Sacred Mirrors’ paintings. He served as an instructor in Artistic Anatomy and Figure Sculpture at the New York University for ten years.

His first monograph, ‘Sacred Mirrors: The Visionary Art of Alex Grey’ was published in 1990. The book takes the viewer on a journey through the physical and spiritual self through pictures and essays.

He is best known for the ‘Sacred Mirror’ series which consist of 21 life-sized paintings that take the viewers on an inward journey into their own divine nature by exploring in detail the body, mind and spirit. The series present the cosmic, biological and technological evolution of the individual.