In keeping with his abstract expressionist predecessors, John Alexander builds his compositions through the simultaneous exploration of material, space, and emotion. With nature as his emotional cue, Alexander creates an abstracted landscape filled with the skeletal heads and bodies of animals in ‘Burleigh Dreams’. Here, Alexander layers the graffiti-like faces of real and invented animals in a composition filled with tension and explosive energy. Encased by a web of lines that attempts to restrain the animals within the canvas, Alexander’s ghostly world represents life and decay, freedom and confinement; alluding to Alexander’s personal perspective on nature’s position in our world.

Inspired by the social, political, and physical environments of Texas and New York, John Alexander (b.1945) brings his skills as a draftsman and appreciation for abstract expressionism to large paintings that capture the emotional truths of his experiences. Using a cast of characters that range from recognizable animals to ethereal skulls and masklike heads, Alexander shows a darker and somewhat satirical side of the relationship between nature and man. Born in Beaumont, Texas, Alexander earned his BFA from Lamar University in Beaumont, TX in 1968 and his MFA from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX in 1970. Soon after completing his MFA, Alexander moved to New York City where he continues to work and live. He is the recipient of the 1981 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the 1984 Solomon R. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. In 2007, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC organized a major museum retrospective of Alexander’s work, which traveled to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX in 2008-2009. Most recently, his work has been the subject of solo shows at Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, L A (2011); J. Johnson Gallery, Jacksonville, FL (2011); and McClain Gallery, Houston, TX (2009).

Selected Public Collections:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY)
Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, CA)
Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago, IL)
National Museum of American Art (Washington, DC)
Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC)
Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, TX)
Milwaukee Art Museum (Milwaukee, WI)