b. 1991
Alexandra Strenfel currently lives and works in Seattle, Washington. Her current work draws from a large library of online and physical images to create dream-like and emotive scenes that are heavily influenced by myth, fantasy, media, and culture. The majority of her paintings are collaged together from multiple sources. Starting with a quick sketch, each piece is improvised and fully fleshed out during the process of painting. In most cases, the starting images become unrecognizable in the final piece, mainly serving as a pictorial scaffolding to allow experimentations in color, distortion and abstracting, and composition. While painting remains her primary focus, she has also expanded her practice to include charcoal and pencil figure drawing, collage, and occasionally, ceramics.
Education
2014, Bachelor of Art Practice, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
2020-2021, Work-Study Apprenticeship, Pottery Northwest, Seattle, WA
2021, Wet Hot Summer Nights Workshop w/ Jennifer Pochinski, Black Pond Studio, Online
2021, Kehoe/ Lichtman/ Pochinski Workshop, The Art Digger Lab, online
2020, Cone 3 Soda Firing, Pottery Northwest, Seattle, WA
2020, Figure Painting in Oil Workshop, Gage Academy, Online
2019, More Than Surface Level, Pottery Northwest, Seattle, WA
2019, Mind Warp: Alternative Building Techniques, Pottery Northwest, Seattle, WA
2018, Ceramics Arts, North Seattle College, Seattle, WA
2017, Intro To Digital Photography, Seattle Central, Seattle, WA
2016, Capturing the Light in the South of France, California State University, Fresno, Nice, FR
Exhibitions
2024, Embodied, The Fishbowl, Seattle, WA
2023, Solo Exhibition, Six years of Process, Common Area Maintenance, Seattle, WA
2023, Shifting Sands, The Fishbowl, Seattle, WA
2019, Stay Home, Common Area Maintenance, Seattle, WA
2019, Student Show and Spotlight, Pottery Northwest, Seattle, WA
2016, CSU Summer Arts: Capturing the Light in the South of France, Schomburg Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Curation
2024, Embodied, The Fishbowl, Seattle, WA
2024, Someday, Soon, Common Area Maintenance, Seattle, WA
2023, Ekphrastic Writings from the work of A. Strenfel, CAM, Seattle, WA
2019, Never Bored Magazine, Volume 7, Monterey, CA
Commissions
2024, Fig, oil painting (16 x 16 in.), oil paint on canvas gatorboard panel, Private Collection
2024, Done Up, drawing (29.5 x 20 in.), charcoal on paper, Private Collection
2024, Green House, Mixed Media Collage (18.5 x 27.5 in.), acrylic, oil paint, magazine pages on paper, First Matter Press, Portland, Oregon
2024, Jar of Moths, Painting (36 x 48 in.), acrylic, oil, and charcoal on canvas, First Matter Press, Portland, Oregon