Alexandra Giannell

Artist Statement

Invested in identity formation alongside socially institutionalized implementations of displacement, imprisonment, and genocide, Alexandra Giannell’s work alludes to the controlling architectural landscapes of penitentiaries and concentration camps as well as the presence and absence of the body through haptic drawing processes. Interweaving phenomenological discussions of vision and perception, Giannell uses graphite on black paper in her intimate drawing series, “Into the Night,” allowing the image to both softly disappear and sharply emerge with light, acting as hums or murmurs.

Bio

Alexandra Giannell is an Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at Utah Valley University, having previously taught at Indiana University and Auburn University as a Visiting Assistant Professor. She holds a diploma in Visual Art from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, BFA in Painting with a minor in Art History from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and MFA in Painting from Clemson University. Giannell has been an Artist in Residence with The Pienkowski Foundation in Poland researching the Holocasut as well as the inaugural Artist in Residence with the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project collaborating in men’s prisons. Her work has received the Florita Eichel Memorial Purchase Award from the Evansville Museum of Art, History + Sciences in Indiana as well as the Foy Gilmore Goodwyn Memorial Award from the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Alabama.