Jen Alexandra’s practice combines sculpture, installation, and performance to explore the artists role as querent, and the relationships between human and non-human. She proposes that art can connect with other realms of experience, interpret visions, or serve as a mode of knowledge itself. Objects, floating ontologically as artefacts and channels for intention, act as transitional objects between places. Alexandra’s work honours the natural world as a sacred, living system, critiquing Western scientific paradigms that objectify nature and challenging colonial perspectives that view it as a resource.
For Alexandra, folklore, nature-based worship, and seasonal lore are ways to understand notions of spirit through studio-focused intuitive technologies approaching the unseen and spiritual as both a platform and tool for expanding understanding of creative practice and acts of devotion.
Jen lives in Ōtautahi Christchurch where she completed an MFA at the University of Canterbury in 2018. Her work has been included in the Arte Laguna Prize in Venice (2017), and the Royal Academy of Arts (London) Summer Exhibition (2020). She participated in the Taitung County Artists Exchange Programme (2019) in Taiwan, contributed to the Speaking Surfaces project at ST PAUL St Gallery (2020), and was an Asia New Zealand Arts Practitioner Fund grant recipient (2023). Recent solo projects include, The Veil is Thin, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū (2021/22), Sisterly at The Dowse Museum (2023) and Tie One, The Spells Begun, The Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū (2024). Jen was the Olivia Spencer Bower Awardee for 2024.
Education
2018 University of Canterbury, Master of Fine Arts (Distinction)
Current Doctoral Candidate at University of Canterbury
Selected Shows and Projects
2025
Tie Three, So It Shall Be, SOFA The Ilam Campus Gallery, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha University of Canterbury (Solo), Olivia Spencer Bower Show
Tie Six, It’s a Magic Fix Artist in Residence, Art Island Centre, Naoshima, Japan
2024
Tie One, The Spells Begun, The Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū (Solo)
Tie Two, No power Undo, The Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū. Performance work
The Blake Prize, The Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Sydney, Australia
20 Years, The National group show, Ōtautahi Christchurch
2023
Sisterly, The Dowse, Wellington (Solo)
Singing While Sinking, Sun Studio Mahurangi
Candles & Sticks, The National
2022 (Name change from Jen Bowmast)
Yuletide Blessings, Installation Cashel Mall Ōtautahi Christchurch, Toi Ōtautahi (Solo)
Daily Altar, Paper presentation with Gwyneth Porter, AAANZ conference, Melbourne University, Australia
De Fem, Performance work responding to Hilma Af Klimt, The Secret Paintings, The City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi
Art & Spirituality Panel Discussion, Public programme Hilma Af Klimt, The Secret Paintings, The City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi
2021
When the Veil is Thin, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Ōtautahi Christchurch (Solo)
Lavender Imagined, The National, Ōtautahi Christchurch (Solo)
ZONTA Female Art Awards 2021, Finalists Exhibition, Ashburton Art Gallery, New Zealand
2020
RA Summer Show 2020, Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom
Speaking Surfaces, ST PAUL St Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
ZONTA Female Art Awards 2020, Finalists Exhibition, Ashburton Art Gallery, New Zealand
Dimensions of the Sacred, Disjecta Contemporary Art Center, Portland Oregon, USA
2019
Sacred Sites, RAMP Gallery, Wintec, Hamilton, New Zealand (Solo)
National Contemporary Art Award 2019, Finalists Exhibition, Waikato Museum, Hamilton, New Zealand
All my friends are Psychic, Viewfinder Gallery, Nelson, New Zealand (Solo)
BAI BAI, Taitung Art Museum, Taiwan
The Aura is Present, (performance) AAANZ conference, University of Auckland, New Zealand (collaboration with Peter Burke)
2018
Artefacts of the Future, The National, Christchurch (Solo)
Sleight of Hand, Group show, RAMP Gallery, Wintec, Hamilton
Project 306, Room 306 gallery, Tokyo, Japan
RCA Summer School Show, Royal College of Art, London, United Kingdom
Performing the Future (performance), AAANZ conference, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia
2017
Arte Laguna Prize, Finalists Exhibition, Nappe Arsenale, Venice, Italy
Select 17, Ilam Campus Gallery, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Artefacts of the Future (performance), AAANZ conference, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
2016
Poetics of Space, G-Space Gallery, Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, New Zealand (Solo)
Select 16, Ilam Campus Gallery, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
While We Were Talking, University of Canterbury Open Day, New Zealand
The Annual Wallace Art Awards, Finalists Exhibition, Pah Homestead and Wallace Gallery Morrinsville, Pataka Art + Museum, Wellington, New Zealand
National Contemporary Art Award 2016, Finalists Exhibition, Waikato Museum, Hamilton, New Zealand
Lives of Objects, University of Canterbury Campus, New Zealand
The Vanguard Project, Salt Gallery, Nelson, New Zealand (Collaboration)
Awards / Scholarships / Residencies
2024 Olivia Spencer Bower Award
2023 Asia New Zealand Foundation Arts Practioner Fund awardee
2019 Taitung County Artists Exchange Programme, Taiwan (Asia New Zealand Foundation)
2017 Jane Rounick Memorial Prize, University of Canterbury
2017 Ethel Rose Overton Scholarship, University of Canterbury
2017 Ethel Susan Jones Fine Arts Travelling Scholarship, University of Canterbury
2016 The Annual Wallace Art Awards, Jury Prize (Collaboration)
2016 National Contemporary Art Award, Merit Award (Collaboration)
2016 Salt Gallery Residency, Nelson, New Zealand