Exclusive Interview with Alex Garant on her background, practice, and upcoming show with Harman Projects!
1) For readers who aren’t familiar with your or your paintings, can you give us a little background on who you are?
AG: I'm a Canadian artist known for my optical illusion-style portraits, most often described as double-eyed, analogue glitch, or mirage surrealism. I spent a lot of my life chasing all kinds of jobs : including clown, nanny, flight attendant, and 15 years in corporate marketing and advertising , until I suffered a heart attack and decided it was time to start chasing my ultimate passion: visual arts. I've spent all my time since then focusing on inventing ways to push the fusion of classical portraiture and optic art.
2) Your work is so visually unique, how do you explain it to someone who’s never seen it?
AG: My oil paintings blend graphic elements with traditional portraiture techniques. I employ patterns, duplication, symmetry, and image superposition to craft my imagery. The idea is to create an experience for the viewer , something aesthetically pleasing while triggering some puzzle-solving instincts. On a deeper level, my works delve into human duality, exploring the conflict between inner identity and outward persona.
3) I’m sure a lot of our readers are artists themselves, can you share a little bit about your
artistic journey? How did you first get into making art, and when did you realize you wanted to pursue art professionally?
AG: I’ve always been the "artsy kid" growing up. My mother is a painter and writer, so I was always surrounded by art supplies. After high school, I studied visual arts in college in Quebec, but for a while, life took me in all kinds of different directions. It wasn’t until I had a major health scare the day after I turned 30 that I reassessed absolutely everything. That moment made me realize that if I got a second chance, I wanted to spend it doing something I loved. So I gave myself full permission to go all in. It’s been intense, magical, and incredibly fulfilling.
4) You’ve been called The Queen of the Double Eyes, and for good reason, your paintings are equally compelling and discombobulating. When did you begin painting this way? And, over the years how would you say your style has evolved?
AG: The double-eye motif started as a search for deeper meaning in my work. I was experimenting with symmetry and overlays, and suddenly this visual duplication unlocked something in me. It wasn’t just about aesthetics, it was about how we see ourselves, how we’re seen, and how confusing that experience can be. The vibration of the image felt like a great analogy for what I was experiencing emotionally. Over the years, one of the major shifts has been how much context I allow my characters to live in. I used to be such a minimalist when it came to background, but this year I really changed direction and infused a lot of my own psyche and personal memories into the storytelling. I'm still obsessed with faces, but the narrative underneath them has grown deeper and more complex.
5) As someone who’s developed such a trademark aesthetic, what advice would you give to an emerging artist also looking to develop their own individual style?
AG: Don’t chase inspiration from existing sources, really look within. Embrace all your creative quirks and lean into them to the point of obsession. Once you get to a certain level of creative self-awareness, it becomes such a fascinating challenge to keep pushing, expanding the boundaries of your natural abilities and finding infinite variations of your thematic.
6) Your new solo show, Dream Wranglers, opens next month at Harman Projects New York City. Can you tell us a little bit about the inspiration for that exhibition?
AG: This whole series was such a renewal of my storytelling method. In the past few years, I’ve let the characters shine without too much context, but for this series, I completely shifted my composition goals and process by infusing a lot of my own psyche into the storytelling elements. It all started by analyzing how I dream, I’m a very active dreamer. When I dream, my mind pulls so many elements from my day and life and combines them into wild stories. I followed the same method for this painting series. I used some aesthetic elements I’m passionate about and included strong images from my memory bank, impactful moments or inspirational experiences: dreamscapes, looking at moving landscapes through the car window during endless road trips as a kid, the importance of girlhood and innocence lost, the beauty of quirkiness and the embrace of kitsch, the clothes I remember owning as a child, the textures and fascination for patterns, the recognition of all the pieces of ourselves we’ve lost while trying to find a better version, and the chase to resurrect our inner child. It's a serious introspection process, shedding the heaviness of the world to let the mind be free. Dream Wranglers is a series about chasing the subconscious to wrangle all those minuscule moments of happiness and hopefully form a version of ourselves able to carry some of that joy into our waking life.
7) Your very first solo show with us was way back in 2016, almost ten years ago! In hindsight, what was it like building up to that first solo show compared to today?
AG: In 2016, I was very much about proving myself, even just proving I was able to create a consistent body of work. Now, the idea of a new series is not about quantity but the opportunity to ground the work in introspection and truly let the storytelling exist as its own capsule within my artistic journey.
8) If you could go back in time and give your younger 2016 self some advice, what would that advice be?
AG: That's a hard question because I feel like I'm learning something new every time I finish a new body of work. When I look back at everything I’ve done in the past, it’s surreal to realize it was created without the technical knowledge I have now. So if I could go back in time, I’d give myself a lot of technical advice, which brushes are the best, which surfaces I love the most, etc. I would totally hack my way in. But more than anything, I’d tell myself I’m on the right path , just keep creating.
9) What has been the most rewarding thing in your career so far? The most challenging?
AG: The most rewarding thing, honestly, is seeing how my work resonates with people. It’s always fascinating how an artist can express themselves through shapes and colors, and how someone else can look at that work and fully understand it. Art is such a unique way for humans to communicate and connect. I’m always humbled when someone reaches out, in person or virtually , to share how they’ve connected with my work. The most challenging part is staying emotionally balanced while turning your creative brain into a business. Art is personal, but the full-time gig is really running a business on your own. Learning to become your own marketer, website designer, merch creator, accountant, PR manager, and everything in between, it’s a wild ride.
10) Looking ahead, what’s next?
AG: More and more paintings. I absolutely love creating and working, and I don’t see myself slowing down ever. So you can expect a lot more from me: more work, more shows, more podcast episodes, and the same intensity and passion.
Alex Garant's exhibition Dream Wranglers will open on April 12th at Harman Projects NYC!
An advance collector's preview will be available online before the exhibition opens, if you would like to receive a price list please contact us at info@harmanprojects.com
Stay up to date with Alex Garant on her Instagram @alexgarantart or through our our Instagram @harmanprojects
