Grey learned anatomy by working to prepare cadavers for dissection at
Harvard Medical School's anatomy department, a position he held for five years. In 1999, the
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego held a mid-career retrospective of Grey's work titled "Sacred Mirrors: The Visionary Art of Alex Grey". That same year, Grey was noticed by guitarist
Adam Jones of the
rock band
Tool, who later featured his artwork on their albums
Lateralus,
10,000 Days and
The String Cheese Incident.
Newsweek magazine, and the
Discovery Channel, have featured his artwork. His images have been printed onto sheets of
blotter acid and have been used on flyers to promote
Rave events. Since 2020, Alex Grey and Allyson Grey have created a podcast that features a variety of topics. Episodes include musings about religion, science, visionary art, nature, meditations, and full moon ceremonies. Mr. and Mrs. Grey have interviewed artists, philosophers, YouTubers, musicians, and PhD candidates.
The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors Grey founded the Foundation for Sacred Mirrors (CoSM), a 501(c)3 as a place to permanently display the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors. Additionally, he created the Church of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM). CoSM allows visitors a place of respite and worship while admiring Grey's artwork and writings. Other invited artists can display their works at the CoSM. According to CoSM's website, "The mission of CoSM is to build an enduring sanctuary of visionary art to inspire a global community." Located in Wappinger, New York, visitors can stroll the 40 acres while enjoying art by Alex Grey, Allyson Grey, and Amy Senn, to name a few. Alex Grey, Allyson Grey, and various other artists created murals that can be found in the cafeteria at CoSM. The property contains a 10 bedroom Victorian guest home that is decorated with art in the visionary style of Grey. A large amount of Grey's work is displayed in Entheon, a converted carriage house on the property. The Greys are currently raising funds for the completion of Entheon. Visitors will enter through bronze doors (see below) that display "Creating a Better World" by Alex Grey. While in Entheon, visitors can also admire Grey's works
Kissing,
Copulating,
Pregnancy,
Birth,
Gaia,
Net of Being (featured by the band Tool), and
Nursing." Viewers will also be able to enter the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors. Grey's project The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM) first opened to the public in Chelsea, New York in 2004 and drew visionary and psychedelic art fans to the site for four years until its closure in December 2008. 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. Grey's 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. "It is the light that is sublime in Grey's oeuvre - which is the most important innovation in religious light since the Baroque - and that makes the mundane beings in them seem sublime, in every realistic detail of their exquisite being". In 2002, Holland Cotter,
New York Times art critic wrote, "Alex Grey's art, with its New Age symbolism and medical-illustration finesse, might be described as psychedelic realism, a kind of clinical approach to cosmic consciousness. In it, the human figure is rendered transparently with X-ray or CAT-scan eyes, the way Aldous Huxley saw a leaf when he was on mescaline. Every bone, organ and vein is detailed in refulgent color; objects and space are knitted together in dense, decorative linear webs."
Writing In 1990 Grey published a large format art book,
Sacred Mirrors: The Visionary Art of Alex Grey. The book included essays on the significance of Grey's work by
Ken Wilber, and by New York art critic,
Carlo McCormick. Grey's
The Mission of Art, a
philosophy of art, The book traces the evolution of human consciousness through art history, explores the role of an artist's intention and conscience, and reflects on the creative process as a spiritual path. He promotes the
mystical potential of art and argues that the process of artistic creation has an important role to play in the enlightenment of both the artist and the broader culture. In
Transfigurations, published in 2001, Grey addresses his portrayals of light bodies, performance works, his collaborative relationship with Allyson Grey, and their quest to build a Chapel of Sacred Mirrors.
Sounds True has released
The Visionary Artist, a CD of Grey's reflections on art as a spiritual practice. Grey co-edited the book,
Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics (Chronicle Books, 2002, reprinted by Synergetic Press, 2015). Alex Grey has published a 10 volume journal that features his own artistic works and the works of other visionary thinkers and philosophers.
Film As an advocate for
sacred art, Grey was the subject of the 2004 documentary
ARTmind: the healing potential of sacred art. Grey and the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors gallery in New York City were featured in the 2006 documentary
CoSM The Movie, directed by Nick Krasnic. Grey appeared in the 2006 film
Entheogen: Awakening the Divine Within, a documentary about rediscovering an
enchanted cosmos in the modern world. He also appeared in the film
DMT: The Spirit Molecule, in which he talked about the importance of the substance DMT in the past and present world, as well as describing some of his personal experiences with the substance and how it influenced his painting. Grey appeared in the 2016 documentary film
Going Furthur. == Personal life ==