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Inside the studio

Alex Hirsch
Transitional State II

Alex Hirsch

About the Artist:

Alex Hirsch is an artist who has been creating drawings and paintings for decades before she added glass as a medium to her repertoire. She developed her glass skills in professional studios around Oregon, Germany and Scotland. Alex is a six time participant with the Sitka Art Invitational  and was an Artist in Residence at Sitka during 2005, 2014 and 2019. During Alex’s most recent Sitka residency in 2019, she created some of the compositions which were translated into the permanent, site-specific, fused-glass artwork that she talks about in her video presentation included in this Inside the Studio series.discussing her commission for the Portland Building (link below).

I make paintings and drawings with watercolor and assorted media. With this work, I hope my viewer will engage with what is before them while going more deeply within themselves. My fine art, studio work moves between calm and highly energetic with its imagery and content drawing from landscape, weather, psychology, spirituality, and the marks we leave.

I also create painterly art glass and innovative artistic solutions for architectural environments. To date, the commissioned projects combine landscape and abstraction. Whether working toward contemplative, uplifting or provocative imagery, mood is always an underpinning consideration in executing any imagery. My painterly glass borrows from years working in other media while taking advantage of glass’s unique properties. I design each commissioned project with the site, community, code, budget, materials and recipients’ priorities in mind.

My paintings are in national and international collections including the UnitedStates Embassy (Bulgaria), U.S. Aid (Uganda), The City of Seattle (Washington),Hallmark Corporation (Kansas), Umpqua Bank, (Portland, OR) Robbins Scientific, (Palo Alto, CA), Opton & Black (Portland, OR); McKinsey & Company (Chicago, IL), Genetech Corporation (San Francisco, CA); and First Western Trust Bank (Denver,CO).

Private and public-sector clients who own commissioned site-specific glass include The City of Portland (Oregon), Good Samaritan Hospital (Puyallup, WA), ODS Inc. (Bend, OR), Southern Oregon University (Ashland,OR), Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR) and Auburn High School (Auburn, WA). It is an honor to make art that innumerable citizens will experience over time.

I am grateful to The Oregon Arts Commission, Oregon College of Art and Craft, Linfield College and the Ford Family Foundation for grants supporting the development of my work. Many residencies have also afforded me time and space to create.

My education includes a Bachelor of Arts withHonors in relationships between politics and the arts and a Bachelor of FineArts Magna Cum Laude in painting and printmaking from the University of Michigan. I earned a Master of Fine Arts in painting from Washington University. I developed my glass skills in studios around Oregon, Scotland and Germany. I am based in Portland, Oregon.

Images of studio

Hirsch working in the glass studio
Hirsch working in the glass studio
Hirsch's installation at Southern Oregon University

Images of Work

Banner – Process and Complete Composite
Transitional State I
Drawing and glass comparison

Portland Building Commission Presentation

To learn more:

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