You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone, save for Sophocles and a small cadre of professors, who has thought about Antigone more than Alexandra Grant. Her work has long combined visual art with an exploration of writing and language and “Antigone 3000 (Anakainōsis),” her most recent show, on display at the Albertz Benda gallery until Thursday, is composed of 10 pieces that tell the story of the Greek heroine through paint, collage, and text. “I was with this teenager, this heroine, throughout perimenopause and menopause, so I feel so grateful to her,” Grant says of the iconic character.
In July, Grant’s show “One Star Is Enough to Believe in the Light” will open at the Neues Museum Nürnberg in Nuremberg, Germany. The exhibition focuses on the work of eight German women writers, from a medieval nun to contemporary authors. “It’s really looking at how women have constituted themselves throughout the history of literature and writing,” she says. Grant adds of choosing her subjects, “I love this question of, ‘Who would you invite to a dinner party?’”
Grant, who also runs the publishing company X Artists’ Books with her partner Keanu Reeves, spoke to ELLE about how she found a way to combine literature and art, spending 14 years on one project, and starting another chapter.