Skip to content

Pull quote

While there can be moments of sadness, I focus on growth by creating moments of peace, joy, and beauty in my work.

Alexandra Chiou - Artists - FERRARA SHOWMAN GALLERY

Artist Statement

My latest series is about the transformative journey of healing after personal loss. I draw on nature and memory to create dimensional works on paper that give physical form to abstract concepts and feelings such as hope, resilience, and wonder; each layer embodies the multitude, depth, and complexity of emotions felt during the healing process. While there can be moments of sadness, I focus on growth by creating moments of peace, joy, and beauty in my work.

These newest works on paper explore the beauty of permanence and impermanence, change and renewal. These artworks are manifestations of generational resilience, personal endurance, blossoming growth, and spiritual rebirth. These dynamic compositions contain flourishes of seeking, searching, and coming into being. Ultimately, they are traces and echoes of love, peace, and memory.

I am drawn to paper as it is a very understated and resilient material. It can be fragile and delicate but also strong and sturdy. For each handmade piece of artwork, I carve hundreds and thousands of precise knife cuts. I design, paint, cut, and arrange various shapes and colors as if I am piecing together a puzzle with each individual component flowing harmoniously into the larger landscape. Each shape, line, and color is a hint, trace, and impression of nature, memory, and a transformative future.

Alexandra Chiou - Artists - FERRARA SHOWMAN GALLERY

Biography

Alexandra Chiou is a visual artist who draws on nature and memory to create layered, dimensional works on paper that explore the transformative journeyof healing after personal loss. Her pieces give physical form to abstract feelings and concepts such as hope, joy, peace, and wonder. Chiou's work has been ex-hibited nationally at galleries including Abigail Ogilvy Gallery (Boston, MA), IA&A at Hillyer (Washington, DC), Launch LA (Los Angeles, CA), Newport Art Museum (Newport, RI), and Weatherspoon Art Museum (Greensboro, NC), and internationally at venues including the US Embassy in Ethiopia. Her pieces are held in public collections such as Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA and have been featured in publications including The Washington Post. She currently lives and works in Arlington, VA.

curriculum vitae

EDUCATION

2011 University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

B.A. in Studio Art (Painting)

B.S. in Commerce (Marketing & International Business)

PUBLIC AND INSTITUTIONAL COLLECTIONS

2023 Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA

AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES

2018-2020 2017 2015 Art in Embassies Program, US Embassy, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Summer Residency at Otis College of Art & Design, Los Angeles, CA

Strathmore Fine Artist in Residence, Bethesda, MD

SOLO AND TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS

2024 Remember/Renew, IA&A at Hillyer, Washington, DC

2021 On the Horizon, Charlotte Russell Contemporary, Raleigh, NC

2017 Infinite Worlds, Hillyer Art Space, Washington, DC

Mirage, BlackRock Center for the Arts, Germantown, MD

The Space Between, The Mansion at Strathmore, North Bethesda, MD

2016 Unbound Oasis, Welcome Gallery, Charlottesville, VA

Primordial Planes, Vivid Solutions Gallery, Washington, DC

2015 Phenomena, Selden Offsite Gallery, Norfolk, VA

2014 The First Inhabitants, Hillyer Art Space, Washington, DC

2013 Genesis, The Jane Sandelin Gallery, Art Works, Richmond, VA

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2025 Radiant, Curated by Erika b Hess, Chautauqua Institution Art Gallery, Chautauqua, NY

2024 Transformations, New Bedford Art Museum, New Bedford, MA

FOUNDATIONS, Open Mind Art Space, Virtual Art Fair on Artsy

2023 Art @ Curio, Curated by art_works, 134 Canal Street, Boston, MA

Alexandra Chiou, Allison Gildersleeve

+

Julia von Eichel, Sarah Shepard Gallery,

Larkspur, CA

2022 Coming Home, Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, Boston, MA

SMFA Art Sale, SFMA at Tufts University, Boston, MA

The MassArt Auction, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA

UNDERCURRENTS, Ely Center of Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT

The Newport Biennial, Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI, Curated by Dr.

Kimberli Gant

2021 Forbidden Fruit, Piano Craft Gallery, Boston, MA, Curated by Hilary Doyle

2020 Transition, Launch LA, Los Angeles, Curated by Holly Jerger

Abstract Distractions, Castelli Art Space, Los Angeles, CA

2019 LA Flora, Launch LA, Los Angeles, CA

(Beyond) Redemption, Backspace LA, Los Angeles, CA

Subconscious Nature, Open Mind Art Space, Los Angeles, CAWe Rise LA, 1262 Palmetto Street, Los Angeles, CA

Tactile: Textiles and Radical Crafting, Artshare LA, Los Angeles, CA

Art on Paper 2019: The 45th

Exhibition, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC

2018 Untitled Gallery Show, Artshare LA, Los Angeles, CA, Curated by Paige Wery

2017 Carte Blanche, Adah Rose Gallery, Kensington, MD

2015 Fine AIR Exhibition, The Mansion at Strathmore, Bethesda, MD

Locally Sourced, American University Museum, Washington, DC

FEATURED PUBLICATIONS AND PRESS

2025 2024 2021 2020 2019 2016 2015 2014 2013 Paper Made II, Fiber Art Now Magazine, Fall 2025 Issue (forthcoming)

In the galleries: An immersive dive into the pandemic experience. Also: A father’s life in

collages, two abstractionists’ inventive use of materials, dystopian panoramas and a

printmaker’s unique visions, The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.-

com/entertainment/art/2024/03/22/art-gallery-shows-dc-area/

Q+Art: Alexandra Chiou Celebrates Her Father’s Life with Delicate Paper Sculptures,

Not Real Art Blog, https://notrealart.com/artist-alexandra-chiou-transitions-delicate-

paper-collage/

Member Spotlight: Alexandra Chiou, Cambridge Art Association Blog, https://www.-

cambridgeart.org/member-spotlight-alexandra-chiou/

Make/Shift: It Wasn’t Supposed to Be Like This, Vox Populi ePublication, Curated by

James Claiborne & Brittany Webb,

https://voxpopuligallery.org/exhibitions/make-shift/

Gardenhouse’s New Gallery Series: Q&A with LA Curator Tyler Lemkin, GH BH Blog,

https://gardenhousebh.com/blog/2020/12/29/gardenhouses-new-gallery-series

-qa-with-l-a-curator-tyler-lemkin/

Meet Alexandra Chiou, VoyageLA, February 25

http://voyagela.com/interview/meet-alexandra-chiou-visual-artist-west-la/

Nature & Nuture by Genie Davis, Artillery Magazine, June 20

https://artillerymag.com/nature-and-nurture-in-gallery-openings/

Emerging Artist Alex Chiou Comes To Vivid Solutions Gallery, March 3

http://anacostiaartscenter.com/2016/03/03/emerging-artist-alex-chiou-comes-to-

vivid-solutions-gallery/

The Right Strokes: Art and Style Collide in Strathmore’s Fine Artists in Residence,

Strathmore Newsletter, Vol. 28, Issue 4, pg. 10

http://issuu.com/ana1105/docs/strathnewsummer15_web

Hillyer Speaks with Jeffery Herrity, Lee Gainer, and Alexandra Chiou, Hillyer Art

Space Blog, October 2

http://hillyerartspace.tumblr.com/post/98994626325/hillyer-speaks-with-jeffery

-herrity-lee-gainer-and

CBS 6 Virginia This Morning Interview for Genesis Show at Art Works, July 3

http://wtvr.com/2013/07/03/vtm-sneak-peek-at-alex-chious-newest-exhibit/