Alexa Frangos (b. 1973) is a photo-based artist from Chicago, Illinois. Utilizing cut paper, photographic ephemera and found objects, Alexa creates constructed realities that seek to reflect on psychological states and identity.Alexa studied Visual Communications and Photography at Washington University in St. Louis before receiving her M.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has been showing work nationally and internationally since 2012. In 2021 she won a Julia Margaret Cameron award for her series Ghosts of Displacement. In 2024 she was one of Photolucida’s Top 200. Alexa is a member of Perspective Group and Photography Gallery in Evanston, Illinois.
Alexa on Instagram
Selected Exhibitions
*solo showPlay As Art, One River Evanston, Evanston, IL, May 2024
Black Edition, Glasgow Gallery of Photography, Glasgow, Scotland, April-May 2024
The Constructed Image (juror Nicole Houff), Praxis Gallery & Photographic Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN, November-December 2023
*Ghosts of Displacement, Perspective Gallery, Evanston, IL, September 2023
Revisiting the Family Album: Stories That Bind Us (juror Aline Smithson), Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, June-December 2023
Altered Images (juror Lisa Volpe), Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, February-June 2023
The Artist Intervenes (juror Aline Smithson), Praxis Gallery & Photographic Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN, February-March 2023
Artists in the Archives: Community, History & Collage, Henry Sheldon Museum, Middlebury, VT, September 2022-January 2023
3rd Barcelona Foto Biennale, FotoNostrum, Mediterranean House of Photography, Barcelona, Spain, November-December 2022
Once Upon a Time: Photographs That Inspire Tall Tales, Griffin Museum of Photography @ Lafayette City Center, November 2021-March 2022
Poetry and Photography, Perspective Gallery, Evanston, IL, November 2021
The Curated Fridge Spring 2021 Show (jurors Jon Feinstein and Roula Seikaly), April-June 2021
2021 Politics of the Kitchen Exhibition (jurors Barbara Ciurej and Lindsay Lochman), Lenscratch, April 2021
WHO: Art About Identity, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH, January-February 2021
A Show of Hands, Don't Take Pictures, November 2020-February 2021
The Shape of Things, Praxis Gallery & Photographic Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN, October-November 2020
*Zoetrope: A Photographic Celebration of Celluloid Cinema, Perspective Gallery, Evanston, IL, September 2020
Summer 2020 Juried Exhibition (juror Martica Sawin), Blue Mountain Gallery, New York, NY, July 2020
Isolation, Midwest Center for Photography, Wichita, KS, June 2020
Size Matters, ShockBoxx Gallery, Hermosa Beach, CA, October-November 2019
Plastic Fantastic X (juror Becky Ramotowski), LightBox Photographic Gallery, Astoria, OR, June-July 2019
TEN X TEN, Midwest Center for Photography, Wichita, KS, November-December 2018
*Worry Doll, Perspective Gallery, Evanston, IL, October 2018
Silicon Valley Plastic Camera Show (juror Ann Jastrab), Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA, July-October 2018
Myths, Legends, and Dreams (juror Amy Holmes George), PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, VT, March 2018
There's No Place Like Home (juror Liza Strelka), Maryland Federation of Art, February-March 2018
Perspective Gallery, Featured Artist, Evanston, IL, September 2017
Home (juror Kevin Miller), Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, December 2016-January 2017
Dream or Nightmare (juror Judy Jashinsky), SCENE Metrospace, East Lansing, MI, December 2016-January 2017
A Sense of Place (juror Jane Fulton Alt), PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, VT, September 2016
Women's Works 2016, Old Court House Arts Center, Woodstock, IL, March-April 2016
15th Annual Joyce Elaine Grant Photography Exhibition (juror Dr. Rebecca Senf), Texas Woman's University, February-March 2016
Somerville Toy Camera Festival (juror Aline Smithson), Nave Gallery, Somerville, MA, September 2015
Shaping New Worlds (juror Lori Kella) Sweetwater Center for the Arts, Sewickley, PA, April-June 2015
Orson Welles Centennial Art Show, Old Court House Arts Center, Woodstock, IL, May 2015
Krappy Kamera 2015 (juror Miriam Leuchter), Soho Photo Gallery, New York, NY, February 2015
Lens 2013 (juror Karen Irvine), Perspective Gallery, Evanston, IL, March 2013
Inspired by: Celebrating Illinois Women Artists (juror Mary Stoppert), Women Made Gallery, Chicago, IL, September 2012
Prizes/HonorsPhotolucida Critical Mass Top 200 of 2024
Praxis Gallery & Photographic Arts Center, Juror’s Honorable Mention, The Constructed Image, November-December 2023
Praxis Gallery & Photographic Arts Center, Juror’s Honorable Mention, The Artist Intervenes, February-March 2023
17th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards, Winner, Worldwide Immigration, 2021
Soho Photo Gallery, Juror’s Honorable Mention, Krappy Kamera show, February 2015
PublicationsChicago Mosaic: Immigrant Stories of Objects Kept, Lost, or Left Behind, Big Shoulders Books, 2023
Synkroniciti, Vol. 5, No. 4, 2023
East on Central, Issue 22, 2022-2023
Photo Trouvée Magazine, Issue 9, December 2022
Still Point Arts Quarterly, Issue 45, Spring 2022
After Hours, Issue 43, Winter 2022
The Hand, Issue 32, April 2021
Mapping a Life: Poems by Susan Moss (cover art), 2021
ResidenciesCollagists in the Archives, Kolaj Magazine and Stewart-Swift Research Center at the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History, May 2022
PressEchoes of Voices Long Silent: A Review of Alexa Frangos at Perspective Gallery, New City Art, September 2023
