Alexa Kanarowski is a photographer based out of Buffalo, New York. Through investigating systems that combine to make our present moment, she focuses on the landscape, cultural, and systemic patchworks that contribute to the “Now.” Frequently working in photo series, Kanarowski creates quilt like narratives that are sensitive to memory, body, and nostalgia. Materially, she is drawn to photobooks, and the intimacy they nurture. Her practice also encompasses craft practices, using stained glass and sewing to further elucidate the patchwork nature of the contemporary moment.
Kanarowski is currently a member of the Buffalo Institute of Contemporary Art’s BICA School. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Cornell University, and her work has been exhibited throughout New York State, including Papergirl Brooklyn and the Johnson Museum of Art (Ithaca, NY). She has been the recipient of multiple awards and grants, including the Edith Adams and Walter King Stone Memorial Prize and the Gibian Rosewater Traveling Research Award.
Exhibitions
Solo and Two Person Exhibitions
2024 Homewrecker!!! With Mia Brown-Seguin, Show Pony Studio, Ithaca, NY
2022 At the Edge of the World is a Sea, Bibliowicz Gallery, Ithaca, NY
2021 My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys, Olive Tjaden Gallery, Ithaca, NY
19/Nineteen Solo Show, Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY
Group Exhibitions
2024 Club Heat, The Temporary Contemporary, Buffalo, NY
CEPA Members Show, CEPA, Buffalo, NY
Converge, Contrast, Illude, The Comma, East Aurora, NY
Dewey Decimal System, Hartell Gallery, Ithaca, NY
2022 Bound Books Unbound, Olive Tjaden Gallery, Ithaca, NY
2021 Dog Breakfast, Olive Tjaden Gallery, Ithaca, NY
What Ends Up in a Book, Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY
2020 Big F@!&%$# Art Show, Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY
Papergirl Brooklyn Papergirl Project, Brooklyn, NY
Inside, Under, Closer, Virtual
STP BFA Show 2020 , Virtual
Mother of Exiles, Cornell AAP, 26 Broadway, NYC
Being Part of the Whole, Nevins Center, Ithaca, NY
2019 Big F@!&%$# Art Show, Tjaden Gallery, Ithaca, NY
2016 Wasatch Back Student Art Show: Year 3000, Kimball Art Center, Park City, UT
2015 Rare Artists Award Show, Capitol Hill, Washington D.C.
Awards and Grants
2023 Colas EPD Photography Contest, Global, 3rd Place
2022 Bibliowicz Family Scholarship in Fine Arts
2021 Edith Adams and Walter King Stone Memorial Prize
2020 Recipient Cornell Council for the Arts Grant
Recipient for 2020, Gibian Rosewater Traveling Research Award
2018 Park City Artists Memorial Scholarship Recipient
2015 EveryLife Foundation Rare Artist Contest, Teen Category
News and Publications
2022 Cover image, Crossroads Issue 16 (A Colas USA Magazine)
2021 Foundations, Claritas Journal
My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys
2020 Vol III, AMO ZINE