A Memorial Exhibition of the Work of Alexandra Kiss
 
Wonder is a transformative emotion. Once in awe of something, it’s very hard to not feel part of that system and hope for its survival.
           – Alexandra Kiss, notebook writing, 2024
 
This exhibition presents a series of drawings authored by School of Architecture graduate Alexandra Kiss. These drawings investigate growth, transformation, and senescence as cyclical temporal processes: On Growth, On Decay, Motherhood, Scapes, Nurse Logs. Alex believed that knowledge and understanding are revealed through the process of looking without necessarily acknowledging a viewing subject. Inspired by the writing of Rachel Carson, the drawings collected here capture a practice that engages with the natural world. Drawing for Alex is a way of seeing that explores those things and places that others may miss in everyday life: with the wonder that is sometimes a joyful trait of childhood.
 
Alexandra’s drawings are often concerned with landscapes and with reconfiguring figure-ground relationships. Much like a landscape is in a perpetual state of becoming, her drawings are part of a narrative which emerges over the course of each series. The decision to work with a limited color palette on paper and translucent media makes it possible for the viewer to track transformation, to discover patterns beyond what eyes would normally see. Often a third form emerges to bind together figure and ground—whether a shadow or a landscape of strewn toys, or laundry, or a window frame. A relationship, we learn by looking at Alex’s drawings, is manifested through some concrete act, moment, or place—it is never abstract. 
 
Alex’s drawing practice is cognizant of space and negotiates with precision. Her drawings diagram information as a form of research and analysis. In this sense, for Alex, drawing something by unfolding it in elevation or studying it in plan is not an act of representation but one of observation, study and engagement. While Alex moved away from the profession of architecture, she maintained a practice of using the pencil to see and think. It was for her a daily exercise. 
 
Alexandra Kiss was born in Romania and grew up in Toronto. Studies in New York and New Haven led to a Bachelor of Architecture from the Cooper Union (2005) and a Masters in Architecture from Yale University (2011), After some time working in New York, she returned to Toronto with her husband, prior to the birth of their daughter, in 2017. In 2018, she turned her focus entirely to drawing. She considered herself a self-taught artist with professional degrees in architecture.

Alex’s work has been exhibited in juried exhibitions and art fairs in Toronto, and Picton, Canada; in Cincinnati, Ohio; and in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Her work is now held in private collections in Canada, the United States, Hong Kong, France, Switzerland, and Ireland. Her drawing has been featured on the cover of Architectural Theory Review, Volume 25, Numbers 1-2 published by Routledge, and in E-flux’s issue on Accumulation.

Free and open to the public
Opening reception: Thursday, April 16, 6:30 pm 
Exhibition hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 12 pm – 7 pm