Alison Van Pelt was born and raised in Los Angeles, where she attended the University of California at Los Angeles, Art Center and Otis. She continued formal training at the Florence Academy of Art, Italy.

Van Pelt begins by referencing a photograph, from which she draws and then paints a realistic portrait entirely by hand. Next comes the work of obscuring the carefully rendered image. From a distance the image appears soft, as though photographed through a mist. But as the viewer approaches the work, vertical and horizontal lines can be seen, and on closer inspection the appearance of a weave of brush strokes emerges. Viewed closely, the details are deconstructed, breaking down a hyper-realistic painting to a distorted and sometimes abstract image. Her technique produces either the streaking effect of motion across the canvas or, like a hologram, the brush work creates a depth and the image seems trapped under the paint.

Her work has been shown at and resides in the permanent collections of LACMA, Armand Hammer Museum, Studio Museum in Harlem, Nasher Museum, Long Beach Museum, Orange County Museum, The Dayton Art Institute, Frederick R. Weisman Foundation, Indianapolis Museum, and many more.

She lives and works in Santa Monica, California.