“Alexandra Bell’s work explores news and reportage as an exercise of faction, fiction, and faith-building, a simultaneously generative and destructive tool that provides us with language to pinpoint things whilst simultaneously inculcating individual bias and the complexity of our worldviews.” – Legacy Russell, Associate Curator of Exhibitions, The Studio Museum in Harlem
“Bell’s work is as powerful in the public sphere as it is in the gallery space, engaging both subjective experience and public discourse, allowing us to see how and where those worlds and ways of comprehending collide.” – Kelly Taxter, Barnett and Annalee Newman Curator of Contemporary Art The Jewish Museum
Alexandra Bell (b. 1983, Chicago) is a multidisciplinary artist who investigates the complexities of narrative, information consumption, and perception. Utilizing various media, she deconstructs language and imagery to explore the tension between marginal experiences and dominant histories. Through investigative research, she considers the ways media frameworks construct memory and inform discursive practices around race, politics, and culture.
Bell’s work has been exhibited at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, Charlie James Gallery, MoMA PS1, We Buy Gold, Koenig & Clinton Gallery, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, Atlanta Contemporary, Pomona College Museum of Art, Spencer Museum of Art, and Usdan Gallery at Bennington College. She received the 2018 International Center of Photography Infinity Award in the applied category and is a 2018 Soros Equality Fellow. She is a 2020 Pioneer Works resident.
Bell holds a B.A. in interdisciplinary studies in the humanities from the University of Chicago and an M.S. journalism from Columbia University. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Alexandra Bell is the recipient of the 2020 New York Artadia Award.