Desiree D'Alessandro is a Tampa-based artist whose current creative focus involves the integration of her artistic performance practice with ambitious pursuits in athleticism–specifically boxing. She regards boxing as a potent topic in terms of contemporary sports and gender studies, as women's boxing is debuting in the 2012 London Olympics. Coupling gender and athlete demographics, while dissolving traditional fields and boundaries, D'Alessandro implements a rigorous artist-turned-athlete training regimen with the aims of competing in upcoming Florida tournaments. To date, she has earned the titles of 2012 Golden Gloves Female Middleweight Champion of Florida and the 2012 USA Boxing Female Middleweight Champion of Florida.

"Art is the arena in which I battle to better understand the world. There is no ringside. We are all in this fight."
- Desiree D'Alessandro

Through sweat and sacrifice, D'Alessandro is conditioned to transform work into a physical and intellectual encounter. Her interactive works revolve around kinaesthetic examinations via a variety of platforms, including site-specific, installation, digital, and performative modes of production. During these investigative bouts, D'Alessandro aims to provoke discourse on subjects that are on-target and immediate. She seeks to enhance the experience of spectator involvement in a practice that eliminates the ropes that restrict the ring, so that the scale of the encounter shifts from the individual to the social.

By intersecting art and athleticism, D'Alessandro encourages spectators from different arenas to converge and converse. Her involvement with Amateur Boxing and rigorous training parallels her artistic practice. Through both, D'Alessandro attempts to harness her body within the work as a vehicle for tactile learning and haptic experience. Whether as a physical work out, a contest, a spectacle, or the opportunity for visual and cognitive mapping, D'Alessandro's work is ideological and intellectual. The outcome is also affectively visceral––showcasing image, scale, movement, color, time, and space.