A portrait of the artist Alex Grey in front of his painting, Net of Being.
2001
Alex Grey in Studio
2005
Alex Grey
Alex Grey
Alex Grey painting.
Alex Grey painting.
Alex Grey
Alex Grey and Allyson Grey
Alex Grey and Dalai Lama
Alex Grey and Adam Jones, Tool guitarist
Allyson and Alex Grey with scale model of Entheon.
2001
Alex Grey in Studio
2005
Alex Grey
Alex Grey painting.
Alex Grey painting.
Alex Grey and Allyson Grey
Alex Grey and Dalai Lama
Alex Grey and Adam Jones, Tool guitarist
Allyson and Alex Grey with scale model of Entheon.
https://www.amazon.com/Visionary-Artist-Alex-Grey/dp/B01K8KOLXS/?tag=2022091-20
(This unique series of paintings takes the viewer on a gra...)
This unique series of paintings takes the viewer on a graphic, visionary journey through the physical, metaphysical, and spiritual anatomy of the self. From anatomically correct rendering of the body systems, Grey moves to the spiritual/energetic systems with such images as "Universal Mind Lattice," envisioning the sacred and esoteric symbolism of the body and the forces that define its living field of energy.
https://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Mirrors-Visionary-Alex-Grey/dp/0892813148/?tag=2022091-20
1990
(Ten years of visionary artwork from a rare artist embrace...)
Ten years of visionary artwork from a rare artist embraced by critics, spiritual leaders, and the general public during his lifetime.
https://www.amazon.com/Transfigurations-Alex-Grey/dp/0892818514/?tag=2022091-20
2001
(More than ever, people are in pursuit of greater fulfillm...)
More than ever, people are in pursuit of greater fulfillment in their lives, seeking deeper spiritual truth and strategies for liberation from suffering. Both Buddhism and psychedelics are subjects that one encounters in such a spiritual pursuit. Edited by Tricycle contributing editor Allan Badiner and art edited by renowned visionary artist Alex Grey, Zig Zag Zen features a foreword by Buddhist scholar Stephen Batchelor, a preface by historian of religion Huston Smith and numerous essays, interviews, and art that lie outside the scope of mainstream anthologies. This new edition of the classic work on Buddhism and psychedelics includes a recent interview with Rick Doblin, founder of MAPS, contributions from Ralph Metzner, James Fadiman, and Kokyo Henkel, and a discussion of ayahuasca’s unique influence on Zen Buddhism. Packed with enlightening entries offering eye-opening insights into alternate methods of inner exploration.
https://www.amazon.com/Zig-Zag-Zen-Buddhism-Psychedelics/dp/090779162X/?tag=2022091-20
2002
(The power of art as a transformative path is the theme of...)
The power of art as a transformative path is the theme of this inspiring collection from internationally known artist Alex Grey. Art Psalms combines poems, artwork, and "mystic rants" that fuse imagination, creativity, and spirituality. Grey’s oracular poetry declares that art, both its creation and its observation, can be a spiritual practice.
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Psalms-Alex-Grey/dp/1556437560/?tag=2022091-20
2008
(The book explores how the mystical experience expressed i...)
The book explores how the mystical experience expressed in Alex Grey’s work opens a new understanding of our shared consciousness and unveils the deep influence art can have on cultural evolution. The narrative progresses through a successive expansion of identity - from the self to self and beloved, to self and community, world spirit, and cosmic consciousness, where bodies are transparent to galactic energies.
https://www.amazon.com/Net-Being-Alex-Grey/dp/159477384X/?tag=2022091-20
2012
https://www.amazon.com/Artmind-Healing-Power-Sacred-Alex/dp/B0002HDH1K/?tag=2022091-20
2004
(The movie is an invitation to personal reflection, leadin...)
The movie is an invitation to personal reflection, leading spiritual adventurers on an enriching and sense-heightening journey into the visionary art cosmos of world-renowned painter, sculptor, and author Alex Grey.
https://www.amazon.com/Alex-Grey-Chapel-Sacred-Mirrors/dp/B0010BCWZY/?tag=2022091-20
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(Alex Gray shaved his head of hair in alignment with the s...)
Alex Gray shaved his head of hair in alignment with the split between the logical left and intuitive right hemispheres of the brain. For half a year he did performances examining the subject of polarities through his self-image.
1974
(Alex Gray passed out leaflets with his face on them, aski...)
Alex Gray passed out leaflets with his face on them, asking people to step on his face or be his friend and call him for dinner. Some people did call, but when they found out they would each pay for their own meal, they decided against getting together. Two people threw it down and stepped on it.
1975
(For two hours Grey suspended himself inside a pyramid. Bo...)
For two hours Grey suspended himself inside a pyramid. Both his hearing and vision were eliminated by means of sensory isolation gear. The work was done before an audience, on the roof of an eight-story building. As people got off the elevator, before climbing to the roof, they read a sign that said, "During Apex I will leave my body and touch you." During the performance, people whispered, and some felt they were touched.
1976
(A group of about twenty-five people joined Alex Grey in a...)
A group of about twenty-five people joined Alex Grey in an evening of events intended to stimulate awareness of our united energy fields.
1978
(Alex Grey sat behind a black desk dressed as a soldier an...)
Alex Grey sat behind a black desk dressed as a soldier and stamped hundreds of people's hands and foreheads with the number of the Beast (Satan), 666, as set forth in Revelations of the New Testament. His chair was half inside a pool of black liquid. Reflected in the black pool was the wall installation of a charred, eight-armed, seven-headed spider-like "Beast" holding guns and knives. The Beast was constructed from a human skeleton and six sheep skulls and was hung on a large barbed-wire spiderweb over a red map of the world. The sound of a civil defense siren, a nuclear explosion, and Handel's Messiah was repeated at a high volume for five hours. The floor was stacked with hundreds of newspapers, the headlines reading, "Hiroshima survivors Testify Before Senators." Projected on another wall was a film loop of a rosy hydrogen bomb blast taken from above the clouds. On the wall opposite The Beast was a large oil painting of Christ crucified on a mushroom cloud over a burning ruined city.
1982
(A special gasoline powered circular drive vehicle was cre...)
A special gasoline powered circular drive vehicle was created for the Human Race performance. The base at one end of the device was bolted into the concrete floor with lead anchors. There was a wheel at the other end making the vehicle go around in a circle. The machine was equipped with a throttle to be hand operated from a supine position. A skeleton was suspended below the radial bed. The audience sat within about two feet of the circle. Dressed in white, with a Yin Yang T-shirt and shaven head, Alex entered the space and pull-started the engine. The engine was very loud and filled the space with the smell of gasoline. He laid down on the machine bed, engaged the motor, coasted to a stop, got off and pull-started it again. The engine failed a number of times before it finally started running smoothly. Finally, the vehicle started and accelerated quickly, spinning around the circle at 25 to 30 m.p.h. until, suddenly, the base ripped out of the concrete. The machine was out of control heading toward the audience. Everyone screamed. The machine stopped when Alex Grey killed the engine and stood up.
1982
(Mr. and Mrs. X were on their way to dinner when they were...)
Mr. and Mrs. X were on their way to dinner when they were surprised by a nuclear blast. With their faces and clothes scorched and bloody, they arrive in hell at a dinner table covered with money. Suddenly Mrs. X awakens, stands up and turns back the clock. She turns off the alarm and vomits up the money, then leads Mr. X to do the same.
1982
(This performance consisted of three sculptures activated ...)
This performance consisted of three sculptures activated by fire. The first was a photo mural of Alex's face, behind which was a praying skeleton with a propane torch coming out of its third eye. Alex lit the torch and it burned through the third eye of the photo mural. The second sculpture was a totem/urn. Grey read a passage from the Holy Bible, then set it into the urn and ignited it. He repeated this procedure of reading and burning with the Qur'an and the Bhagavad Gita. After the books had been burned, the artist mingled the ashes together, then rubbed them on his body. For the third sculpture, Alex sat on the floor and lit candles over the heads of seven skulls before him. A skeleton above burst into flames and firecrackers went off in its skull. Music and chanting of Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim religions were intermixed and interwoven throughout the performance so that several layers of sound were occurring simultaneously.
1983
(In Tibet, prayer wheels are used by monks and laity to in...)
In Tibet, prayer wheels are used by monks and laity to increase the power of their meditation. Carved or printed on all prayer wheels is the mantra - Om Mani Padme Hum - literally meaning, Om, Hail the Jewel in the Lotus, Hum. With the correct understanding, the mere utterance or inspection of this mantra is believed to transport one directly to paradise. In the performance of "Prayer Wheel," Alex and his wife were bound together along with a skeleton while holding a realistic baby doll and a knife. Their bodies were all painted gold. They were attached to the Prayer Wheel which turned as they walked around it chanting the mantra. After circumambulating for an hour and a half, Alex Grey cut the rope attaching them to the Prayer Wheel and they walked out of the space. Sound was recorded at the Avalokitesvara Initiation given by Deshung Rinpoche in Cambridge, Massachusetts, January 1983.
1983
(5,500 apples were laid in the shape of the Goddess. The c...)
5,500 apples were laid in the shape of the Goddess. The creation of the figure was a ritual acknowledgment of our source of life, the Mother Earth. At day's end, the apples were donated to a shelter for homeless families.
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Alex Grey was born in Columbus, Ohio on November 29, 1953, the middle child of a gentle middle-class couple. His father was a graphic designer and encouraged his son’s drawing ability. Young Alex would collect insects and dead animals from the suburban neighborhood and bury them in the back yard. The themes of death and transcendence weave throughout his artworks, from the earliest drawings to later performances, paintings and sculpture.
Alex went to the Columbus College of Art and Design on a full scholarship from 1971-1973. Grey dropped out of art school and painted billboards for Columbus Outdoor Advertising, 1973-1974. Grey then moved to Boston to study with and work as a studio assistant for conceptual artist, Jay Jaroslav, at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1974-1975.
At the Museum School, Alex met his life-long partner, the artist, Allyson Rymland Grey. At their meeting in 1975, an entheogenically induced mystical experience transformed his agnostic existentialism to a radical transcendentalism. The Grey couple continued to take "sacramental journeys" on LSD. For five years, Alex worked in the Anatomy department at Harvard Medical School preparing cadavers for dissection while he studied the body on his own. He later worked for Dr. Herbert Benson and Dr. Joan Borysenko as a research technologist at Harvard’s department of Mind/Body Medicine, conducting scientific experiments to investigate subtle healing energies. Alex’s anatomical training prepared him for painting the Sacred Mirrors (see below) and for working as a medical illustrator. Doctors at Harvard saw images of his Sacred Mirrors, and hired Alex for illustration work.
Grey instructed Artistic Anatomy and Figure Sculpture for ten years at New York University, and has taught the Visionary Art Intensive and other art workshops with Allyson at The New York Open Center, Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, the California Institute of Integral Studies and Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York. The couple now teaches MAGI workshops (Mystic Artists Guild International) at CoSM in Wappinger, New York.
In 1972 Grey began a series of art actions that bear resemblance to rites of passage, in that they present stages of a developing psyche. The approximately fifty performance rites, conducted over the last thirty years move through transformations from an egocentric to more sociocentric and increasingly worldcentric and theocentric identity. In a major performance entitled WorldSpirit, spoken word poetry in musical collaboration with Kenji Williams was released in 2004 as a DVD.
Grey’s unique series of 21 life-sized paintings, the Sacred Mirrors, take the viewer on a journey toward their own divine nature by examining, in detail, the body, mind, and spirit. The Sacred Mirrors, present the physical and subtle anatomy of an individual in the context of cosmic, biological and technological evolution. Begun in 1979, the series took a period of ten years to complete. It was during this period that Alex developed depictions of the human body that “x-ray” the multiple layers of reality, and reveal the interplay of anatomical and spiritual forces. After painting the Sacred Mirrors, he applied this multidimensional perspective to such archetypal human experiences as praying, meditation, kissing, copulating, pregnancy, birth, nursing and dying. Grey’s recent work explores the subject of consciousness from the perspective of “universal beings” whose bodies are grids of fire, eyes and infinite galactic swirls.
Renowned healers Olga Worral and Rosalyn Bruyere express appreciation for the skillful portrayal of clairvoyant vision his paintings of translucent glowing bodies. Countless teachers and spiritual leaders, including Deepak Choprah, incorporate Alex's art in their power point presentations. Grey’s paintings have been featured in venues as diverse as the album art of Tool, SCI, the Beastie Boys and Nirvana, Time and Newsweek magazines, the Discovery Channel, rave flyers and sheets of blotter acid. Exhibited worldwide, Alex's art has been honored with solo exhibitions at Feature Inc., Tibet House, Stux Gallery, P.S. 1, The NYC Outsider Art Fair, The New Museum in NYC, the Grand Palais in Paris, the Sao Paulo Biennial in Brazil. Alex's art has been featured in several year long exhibitions at the American Visionary Art Museum including a room installation he created with Allyson entitled "Heart Net" (1998-99). A mid-career retrospective of Grey’s works at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego in 1999. A keynote speaker at conferences all over the world including Tokyo, Amsterdam, Basel, Barcelona and Manaus, the international psychedelic community has embraced Grey as an important mapmaker and spokesman for the visionary realm.
Grey's first monograph, the large format art book entitled Sacred Mirrors: The Visionary Art of Alex Grey, has been translated into five languages with well over one hundred thousand copies. His inspirational book, The Mission of Art, traces the evolution of human consciousness through art history, exploring the role of an artist’s intention and conscience, and reflecting on the creative process as a spiritual path.
Transfigurations, Alex’s second monograph, contains over 300 color and black & white plates of his artwork. The Visionary Artist, a CD of Grey’s reflections published by Sounds True, leads the listener on a journey of art as a spiritual practice. The video, ARTmind incorporates Alex's images in an exploration of the healing potential of Sacred Art. Grey co-edited the book, Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics (Chronicle Books, 2002). In 2004, the VISIONS boxed set contains both earlier monographs of Grey's artwork plus a portfolio of new works.
Alex Grey’s last monograph, Net of Being, shows how Alex's visionary art is evolving the cultural body through icons of interconnectedness. Grey's latest monograph includes over 200 reproductions of Grey’s artwork, contains spectacular photos of Grey’s collaboration with the band Tool plus his worldwide live-painting performances, and offers Grey’s reflections on how art evolves consciousness with a new symbology of the "networked self." Alex's painting "Net of Being" - inspired by a blazing vision of an infinite grid of Godheads during an ayahuasca journey - has reached millions as the stage set and the cover and interior of the band Tool’s Grammy award-winning triple-platinum album, 10,000 Days. Net of Being is one of many images Grey has created that have resulted in a chain reaction of uses - from apparel and jewelry to tattoos and music videos - embedding these iconic works into our culture’s living Net of Being.
Alex and Allyson have collaborated on performance art, live-painting on stage throughout the world, and the “social sculpture” called CoSM, Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, that the Grey's cofounded in 1996.
A five-year installation of Grey's best-loved artworks were exhibited at the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, CoSM, in New York City from 2004-2009. The Chapel moved to its permanent home in Wappinger Falls, New York in February 2009. With a diverse following ranging from rockstars to scientists, Grey’s works have become icons of the contemporary spiritual movement by virtue of their power to inspire, inform, and illuminate the inexplicable.
Alex Grey has for more than 35 years been at the forefront of the visionary art field. For 2011 and 2012, the Watkins Review named Alex Grey one of the top twenty spiritual leaders alive today. The Temple of Understanding awarded and sighted both the Grey's as two of the world's top fifty Interfaith leaders.
(The book explores how the mystical experience expressed i...)
2012(More than ever, people are in pursuit of greater fulfillm...)
2002(This unique series of paintings takes the viewer on a gra...)
1990(Ten years of visionary artwork from a rare artist embrace...)
2001(The power of art as a transformative path is the theme of...)
2008(The movie is an invitation to personal reflection, leadin...)
2006Adam and Eve
1988Sophia
1989Zena Lotus
1990The Visionary Origin of Language
1991Insomnia
1995Endarkenment
1997Glimpsing the Emperian
1997Big Bang
2000One
2000Fertilization
2001Embryo
2001Embryo
2001Embryo
2001Embryo
2001Embryo
2001Embryo
2001Dissectional Art for Tool’s Lateralus
2001painting
2004Bond
2004Humming Bird
2005Love Circuit
2008Holy Grail
2008Ocean of Love Bliss
2009Aperture
2010Godself
2012Emerald Grail
2014Steeple Head
2014Eclipse
2017The Beast
(Alex Grey sat behind a black desk dressed as a soldier an...)
1982Life Energy
(A group of about twenty-five people joined Alex Grey in a...)
1978Polarity
(Alex Gray shaved his head of hair in alignment with the s...)
1974Leaflets
(Alex Gray passed out leaflets with his face on them, aski...)
1975Prayer Wheel
(In Tibet, prayer wheels are used by monks and laity to in...)
1983Human Race
(A special gasoline powered circular drive vehicle was cre...)
1982Burnt Offering
(This performance consisted of three sculptures activated ...)
1983Apex
(For two hours Grey suspended himself inside a pyramid. Bo...)
1976Goddess
(5,500 apples were laid in the shape of the Goddess. The c...)
1989Wasteland
(Mr. and Mrs. X were on their way to dinner when they were...)
1982In 2004, Alex Grey and his wife founded the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors in New York, a trans-denominational church and organization dedicated to the realization of a shared 1985 vision of Alex and Allyson Grey to build a contemporary public Chapel as "a sanctuary for spiritual renewal through contemplation of transformative art."
Asked about religion, Alex said "Love is God's secret name. I grew up Methodist and went to church until my parents gave up on religion when I was nine. Allyson grew up Jewish and continues to practice to some degree. I have been a scholar of all religions, particularly Buddhism, for the past 25 years. We meditate. We are both approved ministers who counsel people regarding their spiritual and creative lives, officiate weddings, baby blessings, and attend to those grieving. Art is our spiritual path and ministry. Religion comes from the word "re" or again and "ligare" meaning to bind or tie back. The purpose of religion is to unite the self with God or the creative force. Music, sacred spaces, and meaningful icons are the way we conjoin our minds with the transcendental."
Grey's paintings can be described as a blend of sacred, visionary art and postmodern art. He is best known for his paintings of glowing anatomical human bodies, images that “x-ray” the multiple layers of reality. His art is a complex integration of body, mind, and spirit. The Sacred Mirrors, a life-sized series of 21 paintings, took 10 years to complete, and examines in detail the physical and metaphysical anatomy of the individual. "The inner body is meticulously rendered - not just anatomically precise but crystalline in its clarity". Many of his paintings include detailed representations of the skeleton, nervous system, cardiovascular system, and lymphatic system. Grey applies this multidimensional perspective to paint the universal human experience. His figures are shown in positions such as praying, meditating, kissing, copulating, pregnancy, birth and death. His work incorporates many religious symbols, including auras, chakras, and icons with geometric shapes and tessellations in natural, industrial, and multicultural situations. Grey's paintings are permeated with an intense and subtle light that is rare in art history. His highly detailed paintings are spiritual and scientific in equal measure, revealing his psychedelic, spiritual and supernatural view of the human species.
Alex Grey promotes the possibility of the mystical potential of art: he argues that the process of artistic creation can (and should) play a role in the enlightenment of the artist. For him, the process of artistic creation holds the potential of transcending the limitations of the mind and more fully expressing the divine spirit. He also believes that art can induce within the viewer an elevated state wherein spiritual states of being are attained.
Quotations:
"Witness the contents of mind, the visions, and sounds, the thoughts, as clouds passing through the vast expanse - the sky-like nature of mind. The rootedness of Being is in emptiness, clarity, and awareness: unborn, unspoilt, stainlessly pure."
"The infinite vibratory levels, the dimensions of interconnectedness are without end. There is nothing independent. All beings and things are residents in your awareness."
"Create perfection wherever you go with your awareness. That is why this teaching is admired by artists - they sense the correctness of the response to life as creative. Life is infinite creative play. Enjoyment and participation in this creative play is the artists profound joy. We co-author every moment with universal creativity."
"I am an intersecting kaleidoscope of Being in a rainbow refractive wave pattern: a corpuscle of light on the ocean...the transparency of my body with the rocks...sometimes the only way to summarize my feelings is to draw - to collapse the frenzy in my limbs enough to make a mark out of profound appreciation for my existence."
“Having everyone together in one place is like a creative battery that calls in the angels.”
Grey is a member of the board of advisors for the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics.
Alex Grey and his wife are known to take LSD.
Quotes from others about the person
"Mr. Grey's paintings, as detailed and anatomically accurate as medical illustrations, present man as an archetypal being struggling toward cosmic unity - Grey's vision of flawed but perfectible mankind stands as an antidote to the cynicism and spiritual malaise prevalent in much contemporary art." - New York Times
Alex is married to Allyson Rymland Grey, also an artist. The Greys are grateful and proud parents of their daughter, Zena Grey, born in 1988, who is an accomplished actress and artist living in Los Angeles.
Allyson Grey is a painter and social sculptor.
Zena Grey is an actress and artist.
In 1999, Alex's work caught the attention of Tool guitarist Adam Jones. After meeting at one of Alex's art exhibitions, the two "struck up a friendship," which eventually led them to collaborate on the iconic artwork for Tool's Lateralus, 10,000 Days and more.
Maynard Keenan is an American singer-songwriter and the vocalist for the rock bands Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer.
Daniel Edwin Carey is an American drummer and instrumentalist best known for his work in American Grammy Award-winning progressive metal band Tool.
