ARTIST STATEMENT
My work explores care, labor, memory, and the ways personal and collective histories are carried through ordinary objects and inherited traditions. Working across printmaking, textiles, photography, artist books, installation, and digital processes, I combine silkscreen, monoprint, engraving, embroidery, sewing, collage, and found materials to create layered works that function as repositories of memory.
I am drawn to domestic artifacts—preservation jars, utensils, textiles, family photographs, and handwritten documents—as vessels that hold traces of nourishment, grief, resilience, obligation, and love. Through accumulation, repetition, and repair, I examine the often-unseen labor of women and the stories embedded within everyday life.
My practice is rooted in research, family history, and community participation, inviting viewers to consider how objects preserve identity across generations. I hope my work creates spaces for reflection, recognition, and connection, where personal histories become part of a larger shared narrative.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Alexa Wheeler is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and master printer whose work examines care, labor, memory, and the ways personal and collective histories are carried through objects, images, and inherited traditions. Working across printmaking, textiles, photography, artist books, installation, and digital processes, she creates layered works using silkscreen, monoprint, engraving, embroidery, sewing, collage, and found materials. Her research centers on domestic artifacts, vernacular histories, and the often-unseen labor that shapes everyday life.
Wheeler is Principal Lecturer III in Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico–Valencia and founder of toastlab, a mobile makerspace dedicated to community-based creative practice. She has completed residencies at Vermont Studio Center and Furman University, with an upcoming one at Kinhouse. In 2026, she was named an Athena Fund Solo Show Awardee at ARC Gallery in Chicago. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is held in public and private collections.
© Alexa Wheeler