Nashville-born Aliene de Souza Howell’s bi-cultural background—daughter of a Brazilian physical education specialist and a New York psychologist—cultivated the observational acuity that defines her work.
With a foundation in linocut, Howell creates imagery merging animals, objects, and human forms to explore the interplay between our behavior and the environment, blurring the line between the familiar and uncanny. Her meticulous process mirrors the duality in her surreal yet documentary-like imagery—a quality that once caught Steve Martin's eye during a critique.
A transformative moment in the German Alps—watching a storm pass below her—epitomizes her approach: investigating the quiet intersections where consciousness meets natural phenomena, revealing patterns that connect our inner and outer worlds.
Howell holds a BFA from Guilford College and an MFA from the New York Academy of Art, with study in Rome and London. Her experience includes mural work with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program and residencies in Germany and Ireland. Following fifteen years in New York and a period of renewal, her revitalized practice honors continuity while moving into new creative terrain—rooted in curiosity, spontaneity, and the transformative power of process. Her work appears in collections including Eileen Guggenheim, Francie Bishop Good, Jean-Pierre Roy, Naomi Watts, and Liev Schreiber.