• 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 show

    Modern Fluxus, The Little Gallery BGSU Firelands, Huron, OH, October-December 2024

    Play As Art, One River Evanston, Evanston, IL, May 2024

    Black Edition, Glasgow Gallery of Photography, Glasgow, Scotland, April-May 2024

    Connection/Disconnection, Perspective Gallery, Evanston, IL, January 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/Honors

    Photolucida 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


    Publications

    Chicago 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


    Residencies

    Collagists in the Archives, Kolaj Magazine and Stewart-Swift Research Center at the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History, May 2022


    Press

    Echoes of Voices Long Silent: A Review of Alexa Frangos at Perspective Gallery, New City Art, September 2023