Alexandra Grant
Exhibition & Residency:
April 15 – June 28, 2013

Alexandra Grant is a Los Angeles-based artist who uses language and networks of words as a source for imagery in sculpture, painting, drawing and video. Grant’s work explores ideas of translation, identity, and dis/location not only in drawings, painting and sculpture, but also in conversation with other artists and writers, such as her longterm collaborator, hypertext author Michael Joyce, the actor Keanu Reeves, artist Channing Hansen, and the philosopher Hélène Cixous. Grant maps language in different media: from intricate wire filigree sculptures to large scale drawing/paintings on paper. She investigates translation not only from language to language, but also from text to image, spoken language to written word, and representations in two dimensions to three dimensional objects. Some of the basic queries that fuel her work are: How do we “read” and “write” images? How does language place us? What is the role of the hand in a world dominated by electronic communication?

Grant has a BA from Swarthmore College, and an MFA from California College of the Arts. Grant’s work has been exhibited in many galleries and museums, locally and abroad, including the 2010 California Biennial of Art at the Orange County Museum of Art, the Artists’ Museum at MOCA, and Human Nature: Contemporary Art from the Collection at LACMA. She is also known for her work in collaboration with the Watts House Project, a non-profit in Watts, across the street from the Watts Towers. She was the Founding Board Chair of the organization, working with director Edgar Arceneaux, and is the creator of the Love House, a renovation of a house on 107th Street designed with the Cerant Family and architects Roberto Sheinberg and Arnold Swanborn. Grant’s idea in creating the Love symbol is that an artist can also be a philanthropist.

Alexandra Grant’s Artist Lab Residency at 18th Street Arts Center and all associated events have been made possible through the generous support of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Additional Information:

KCET Artbound: Welcome to Alexandra Grant’s Interior Forest

KCET Artbound: Alexandra Grant: My SoCal Art History

In The Make: Studio Visit with Alexandra Grant