Keanu Reeves, the action hero with a heart of gold, ignited a media frenzy over the weekend when he stepped onto the red carpet at LACMA’s Art + Film Gala holding hands with the Los Angeles-based artist Alexandra Grant.
So who is the woman who captured the heart of the internet’s boyfriend, and who may be responsible for pulling Reeves out of his despondent, sandwich-gazing “lonely guy” phase? The truth is that while she got a hefty dose of online amplification these past few days, she’s been a part of the art world for years.
After graduating from Swarthmore College, she went on to get an MFA at the Bay Area-based California College of Arts. From there she began exhibiting at galleries around California, at places like Honor Fraser, Night Gallery, and Lowell Ryan Projects, and has also had her text-based work featured in group shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
She is known for collaborations and has worked with author Michael Joyce on colorful text paintings, and French feminist philosopher Hélène Cixous on a collaborative, participatory, multi-part art installation, Forêt Intérieure/Interior Forest.
She has been seen at LAXART events, the Los Angeles Film Festival, and various auction benefits. We have also spotted her in the company of other art-world figures including Brenna Youngblood, Derek Blasberg, and Dustin Yellin.
Actor Keanu Reeves and artist Alexandra Grant posing by their book Ode to Happiness. Photo by Pierre Suu/GC Images.
She and Reeves have been collaborating for at least a decade: Grant added some sad New Yorker-style cartoon illustrations to Keanu’s lamentation-filled book, Ode to Happiness. The pair published it as a limited-edition artist book after an intensive, week-long printing process at the famed Steidl press in Germany.
Speaking to W last year, Grant and Reeves were endearingly in sync, and Keanu mused about “that collision of RGB and CMYK.”
Inside view of Shadows text by Keanu Reeves, illustration by Alexandra Grant. Courtesy of Steidl.
The second book the two collaborated on is called Shadows. (Now out of print, it was priced at a hefty €198). It features images by Grant of Reeves in his off-time while shooting John Wick. The book has moodily lit images of his silhouette as he arches his back, splays his fingers, and even engages in some judo-esque movements, juxtaposed with spare phrases printed on the opposite page. (It’s very serious.)
In 2017, the two made their professional relationship official by establishing X Artists’ Books, a small press. Books, according to the press, “bring sustenance and shift realities. They may occasionally break your heart… X is a connection, a multiplier, a kiss, a proxy… it stands for treasure, uncharted territory, the core of infinity… X marks the spot.”
Below, find a selection of Grant’s solo work, and excerpts from her collaborations with Reeves:
An excerpt from Ode to Happiness by Keanu Reeves & Alexandra Grant. Courtesy of Steidl.
Installation view of “Alexandra Grant: Bodies” at Honor Fraser, Los Angeles.
Installation view of “Synthesis” featuring Alexandra Grant. Courtesy of the artist.
Alexandra Grant, Body 1. Courtesy of the artist.
Installation view of Alexandra Grant’s I was born to love (1) and I was born to love (2) (both 2019) at Lowell Ryan Projects in Los Angeles.
Alexandra Grant at Marfa Invitational 2020. Courtesy of the artist.