polaroid, kuskatan, 2024
Alexa Black is a multidisciplinary artist of Nahua, Maya, and Irish heritage, creating as a guest on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples, including the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Her practice spans small- and large-format photography, graphite and charcoal drawing, and analogue videography. Across these mediums, Black engages image-making as a form of alchemy—revealing unseen realms that exist beyond terrestrial and colonially imposed boundaries. Her work is grounded in an animistic understanding of interconnectedness, drawing from the energies of her ancestral lineages and the transformative potential of conscious healing.
In her recent body of work, Black explores the reconciliation of fractured identities, reclaiming and amplifying the voices of her matrilineal Indigenous ancestors. Her practice bridges past and present, weaving lineage, memory, and spirit into a living archive that resists erasure and reclaims cultural and personal histories.
A dedicated photographer since the age of 16, Black discovered the wet plate collodion process in 2015, igniting a lasting relationship with the material and chemical intimacy of analogue photography. Drawing and painting—her first artistic languages—have remained foundational to her practice since childhood. In 2022, she further developed her draftsmanship through a nine-month sponsorship at the Barcelona Academy of Art, and in 2023, she expanded her wet plate practice to mammoth plates under the mentorship of acclaimed photographer John Coffer.
Black sustains and informs her practice through movement and dance, engaging eroticism as a site of creative power, embodiment, and reclamation.
Through her work, she invites viewers into liminal spaces where identity, memory, and ancestral reverence converge—offering a visceral exploration of connection, resilience, and transformation.
EXHIBITIONS
2016 - My Old Soul - All Island Art Show Ḵay Llnagaay Museum - Haida Gwaii
2018 - Wild Like Moonlight - The Station House Gallery - Williams Lake
2018 - Wild Like Moonlight & Star Child Series - at Indigenous Health Hub- Vancouver
2018 - Wild Like Moonlight & Star Child Series - for Bent on Art Festival at Kootenay school of arts - Nelson
2018 - Wild Like Moonlight & Star Child Series for Bent on Art Festival at Fernie Museum - Fernie
2018 - Grey Sky Island of Jewels & Medicine Tongue - Ghosts of Electricity Group Show at Smoke The Moon - Los Angeles
2021 - Cartomancy Series: Major + Minor Arcana - Habit Coffee Shop - Victoria
2021 - Cartomancy Series: Major Arcana - Gastown Tattoo Parlour - Online
2021 - Cartomancy Series- Oxygen Art Centre - Online
2022- Cartomancy Series- The Loft 112 - Calgary
2022- Cartomancy Series- Weesageechak 35 - Toronto
2024 - Cartomancy Series- SEITES STUDIO, The Collector's Gallery of Art, Romana Kaspar-Kraft, Calgary
2024- Cartomancy Series- Earthtones Digital Museum: Magic Items - Online and offline, Montreal
2025 - Cartomancy Series- Gallery 881 - Vancouver
2026 - Cartomancy Series- Nikki Gallery, New Orleans, LA
RESIDENCIES
2025 - OU artist residency- Cowichan Valley
PUBLISHED
2014 - HABITAT; Nambia and Maroc Super 8 Film - Featured Artist - Invisible City Magazine Issue 08 - Online
2016 - With Darkness as Her Teacher - Featured Artist - VAMP MEDIA - Online.
2020 - Feature article - Discorder Magazine - Winter edition.
2020 - Feature spread - Inner Sleeve Magazine - Winter edition.
2023 - 12th edition Coyopapalotl Itemic - Featured Artist - SEITIES magazine, theme: DREAMS.
2023- Burn Barrel Press Magazine - Featured Artist- Volume 4
AWARDS
2020 - Canada Council of the Arts: Explore and Create grant recipient
2021 - First Place Monovisions Fine Art Black and White Photography: Ne Timikilis Pal Ne Kuyut Papalut
2022 - Native Earth 40 Seeds for 40 Seasons award
2022- Canada Council of the Arts: Concept to Realization grant recipient
2023- Grand Prize Winner Monovisions Conceptual Series of the Year: Datura’s Secrets
2023- ND Awards Photo Contest Winner: Ne Timikilis Pal Ne Kuyut Papalut
2024- Exposure One Awards: Bronze and Honorary Mention in Professional Fashion and Beauty.
2024- Canada Council of the Arts: Explore and Create grant recipient for TUNAL: the sun, spirit, and culture of the last Nahuablantes
RELEVANT EDUCATION
2016- Studio Q Daguerreotype Workshop Wetplate Collodion Negatives & Tin Type Positives - Vancouver
Fall/Winter 2016 - Academy of Fine Arts of Montreal Intensive Program - Montreal
Fall/ Winter/ Spring 2022 & 2023 - Barcelona Academy of Art Full Time Drawing Program (sponsored)
Fall 2023- Mammoth Wetplate Mentorship with John Coffer- Dundee, New York