Alexandra Bell (born 1983) is an American multidisciplinary artist.[1] She is best known for her series Counternarratives, large scale paste-ups of New York Times articles edited to challenge the presumption of "objectivity" in news media.[2] Using marginalia, annotation, redaction, and revisions to layout and images, Bell exposes racial and gender biases embedded in print news media.[3]
Life and education
Bell was born and raised in Chicago.[4] She cites visual artists such as Glenn Ligon, Jenny Holzer, and Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar as inspirations.[5] Bell holds a Bachelor of Arts in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Chicago.[6] She also received her master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2013.[7]
Work and critical reception
Bell's work has appeared in major group and solo exhibitions across the United States, including the 2019 Whitney Biennial, which featured a newly commissioned series of prints titled No Humans Involved: After Sylvia Wynter, which looks at the New York Daily News’ reporting of the Central Park Five case. Among other accolades, Bell received the 2018 International Center of Photography Infinity Award[8] in the applied category and was a 2018 Open Society Soros Equality Fellow.[9]
Exhibitions and installations
Solo
- Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, Georgia, August 26 – December 17, 2017[10]
- Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont, October 10 – December 15, 2017[11][12]
- MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New York, November 9 – December 11, 2017[13]
- Pomona College Museum of Art, Claremont, California, March 2 – May 13, 2018[14]
- Spencer Museum of Art University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, March 5 – April 8, 2018[15]
- Allen Memorial Art Museum and Oberlin College Libraries, Oberlin, Ohio, October 30 – December 21, 2018[16]
Group
- An unassailable and monumental dignity, CONTACT Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, September 21 – November 18, 2017[17]
- Lack of Location Is My Location, Koenig & Clinton Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, November 3, 2017 – January 14, 2018, 2017[18]
- Hold These Truths, The Nathan Cummings Foundation New York City, November 13, 2017 – March 14, 2018[19]
- Original Language, Cue Foundation, New York City, September 6 – October 11, 2018[20]
- Punch (curated by Nina Chanel Abney), Jeffrey Deitch, New York, September 15 – October 27, 2018[21]
- The Legacy of Lynching: Confronting Racial Terror In America (organized with the Brooklyn Museum, Equal Justice Initiative, and Google), Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery at Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania, October 26, 2018 – December 16, 2018[22]
- 2019 Whitney Biennial (curated by Rujeko Hockley and Jane Panetta), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, May 17 – September 22, 2019[23]
- Direct Message: Art, Language, and Power, MCA Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, October 26, 2019 – January 26, 2020[24]
References
- ↑ Hairston, Tahirah. "Alexandra Bell Makes Art for the Fake-News Era". The Cut. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
- ↑ Hairston, Tahirah. "Alexandra Bell Makes Art for the Fake-News Era". The Cut. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
- ↑ "This Brooklyn Artist Is Taking On the Media". The Village Voice. 19 July 2017. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
- ↑ Stevenson, Sandra (2017-12-07). "Analyzing Race and Gender Bias Amid All the News That's Fit to Print". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
- ↑ St. Félix, Doreen (2017-07-31). "The "Radical Edits" of Alexandra Bell". ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
- ↑ "CV". Alexandra Bell. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
- ↑ "Alexandra Bell Uses Her Public Art to Expose Media Racism". artnet News. 2017-06-01. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
- ↑ "2018 Infinity Award: Applied — Alexandra Bell". International Center of Photography. 2018-02-08. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
- ↑ "Soros Equality Fellowship". www.opensocietyfoundations.org. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
- ↑ "Alexandra Bell|Atlanta Contemporary". Atlanta Contemporary. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
- ↑ "Alexandra Bell: Counternarratives | Bennington College". www.bennington.edu. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
- ↑ "Reading Critically: Alexandra Bell's "Counternarratives" | Art21 Magazine". Art21 Magazine. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
- ↑ "Alexandra Bell: Counternarratives | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
- ↑ Bae, Justine (26 February 2018). "Pomona College Museum of Art presents An Artist Talk and Installations by Alexandra Bell" (PDF). Pomona College. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
- ↑ "Alexandra Bell: Counternarratives | Spencer Museum of Art". spencerart.ku.edu. 5 March 2018. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
- ↑ "Counternarratives". www2.oberlin.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
- ↑ "An unassailable and monumental dignity at CONTACT Gallery - Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival". scotiabankcontactphoto.com. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
- ↑ "Koenig & Clinton — Lack of Location Is My Location: Becca Albee, Eleana Antonaki, Kamrooz Aram, American Artist, Alexandra Bell, Lisa Corinne Davis, Torkwase Dyson, Andrea Geyer, Nicole Miller, Aliza Nisenbaum, Dawit L. Petros, Xaviera Simmons, William Villalongo". koenigandclinton.com. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
- ↑ "Hold These Truths | Nathan Cummings Foundation". www.nathancummings.org. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
- ↑ "Exhibitions". CUE Art Foundation. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
- ↑ "Punch, Curated by Nina Chanel Abney". deitch.com. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
- ↑ "The Legacy of Lynching: Confronting Racial Terror in America". Retrieved 2020-03-07.
- ↑ "Whitney Biennial 2019". whitney.org.
- ↑ "Direct Message: Art, Language, and Power". Retrieved 2020-03-07.