Bad Talents® is the creative identity of multi-disciplinary artist + designer, Shelby Alexander, and the pseudonym under which she exhibits her fine art nationally. Shelby lends her creative vision to Mattel as art director for Barbie, while simultaneously running her personal fine art business as Bad Talents®.

 

FINE ART

Bad Talents® expands contemporary concepts of drawing & painting by uniquely combining figurative works on paper with textile backgrounds. These backgrounds are exclusively composed of repurposed vintage textiles and damaged secondhand clothing, much of which she sources from her own closet. This process serves to explore her own complicated relationship with fashion: after having studied fashion at Pratt, she remains seduced by it as an art form in its own right and as a vehicle for self-expression. Nevertheless, next to Big Oil, the clothing industry is the second largest polluter in the world. Her work references the pollution of the fast fashion industry and highlights the tension between the modern experience of beauty, consumption, and industrialization—and the long-term environmental impact of the clothing we wear.

DESIGN

In addition to exhibiting fine art as Bad Talents®, Shelby also works full-time as art director for Barbie at Mattel. She previously designed & art directed for Procter & Gamble Beauty, where she lent her vision to global skincare brands like Olay. Shelby specializes in brand building & strategy, as well as creative direction for brands’ video + photography content. She is particularly excited about visual storytelling across mediums and building fluid design systems for big beauty brands.

 
 
 
 

BEHIND THE BRAND

Shelby lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2014 with degrees in Visual Art & Design and Business Economics, and she also studied fashion design at Pratt in NYC. Her work has been exhibited nationally in galleries and museums, and has been exhibited on two billboards in Los Angeles and one in Indianapolis. Most recently, she held her fifth solo exhibition, Bad Talents: Above the Fold, at the Indianapolis Art Center in Spring/Summer of 2022.