Alexa Black is a multi-disciplinary artist of Nahua, Maya and Irish heritage creating as a guest on traditional, ancestral and unceeded territory of the Coast Salish peoples, including the Xwməθkwəyə̓’m (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-waututh) nations.
Her chosen variety of mediums include small and large format photography as well as graphite drawing. they are the vehicles that reveal the magic of hidden realms that exist parallel to our terrestrial and colonially defined reality. these primarily self taught practices are ignited by the energies of her indigenous ancestral territories, animism and healing.
Her most recent work finds her reconnecting the seams of her fractured identities, by reclaiming and amplifying the voices of her silenced ancestors from matrilineal blood lines.
Enamoured with the wet plate collodion process, Alexa learned the foundations of the craft in 2015. she was able to develop her drawing through a 9 month sponsorship at the Barcelona academy of art in 2022, and further her practice to developing mammoth plates with her new mentor, john coffer in 2023.
Nepantla, as conceptualized by queer Chicana feminist theorist, Gloria Anzaldúa, involves the transference of cultural and spiritual values of one group to another, specifically as experienced by people who feel the in-between-ness of multitudes within their own identity. This yields sentiments of being in a constant state of transition, which builds tolerance for contradiction.
Kyriarchy is an intersectional feminist theory that explores power and oppression depending on one’s ever changing positionality. This acknowledges how we relate to one another, and each other’s experiences within our socio-cultural worlds.
Framed within the art of cartomancy, Nepantla and Kyriarchy inform the shared sense of wholeness experienced through this work.
The goal of this project is to not only initiate ritual and ceremony that engages critical reflection of self and the world, but also, to reconnect fragmented identities, inspiring new ways of existing in wholeness and connectedness within the flesh.