Alexa Wheeler Verified listing

I am an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and printmaker based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At its core, my work is about memory, care, inheritance, and the stories we carry. I am interested in the things that often go unnoticed: a worn kitchen towel, a handwritten note tucked into a drawer, a family photograph, a repaired piece of clothing, a story told and retold across generations. These ordinary objects and moments hold extraordinary histories.

My work combines printmaking, textiles, photography, video, sound, book arts, and installation. I build layers through stitching, printing, transferring, cutting, collecting, and mending. I am less interested in creating perfect objects than in creating spaces where traces of lived experience remain visible. The work often explores women’s labor, caregiving, resilience, and the ways memory is carried through both people and things.

In recent years, I have become increasingly interested in ancestry, family history, and collective storytelling. Some of my projects incorporate audio recordings, oral histories, and participatory elements that invite others to contribute their own memories and experiences. I love the idea that a work of art can hold many voices rather than a single narrative. Some of the most meaningful moments in my practice happen when someone recognizes a piece of their own story within the work and chooses to share it.

This interest in shared authorship also informs toastlab (Together, Observe, Acknowledge, Share, Transform), a mobile makerspace and community project I founded to bring people together through artmaking and storytelling. Whether I am working alone in the studio or alongside others, I am interested in how creative practice can help us feel more connected to ourselves, to one another, and to the histories that shape us.

More than anything, I make work to better understand what we inherit, what we choose to carry forward, and how acts of making can become acts of remembering. I believe art can help us witness one another more fully, and that belief continues to guide everything I create.

My work is inspired by the stories we carry, especially those that are often overlooked, dismissed, or lost over time. I am drawn to domestic objects, family histories, inherited traditions, and the quiet labor that shapes our lives. Much of my work explores memory, care, resilience, and the ways women pass knowledge, responsibility, and love from one generation to the next.

I find inspiration in old photographs, handwritten notes, textiles, kitchen objects, conversations with family members, archival research, and the landscapes connected to personal history. I am interested in how ordinary objects can hold extraordinary stories.

As both an artist and educator, I am also inspired by connection and community. Through participatory projects, storytelling, and collaborative making, I create opportunities for people to share experiences, witness one another’s histories, and recognize the value of their own voices. Ultimately, my work asks how we remember, what we preserve, and what we choose to carry forward.

• Recipient of the 2025 Fulcrum Fund, supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, for toastlab, a mobile makerspace and community storytelling initiative.

• Principal Lecturer III of Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico–Valencia, where I teach printmaking, photography, electronic art, and interdisciplinary studio practices.

• Completed the Tamarind Master Printer Program and collaborated with leading print studios including Pyramid Atlantic Press, Flatbed Press, Jean-Yves Noble Serigraphy, and PaperPress (Germany).

• Working under my maiden name, Alexa Burns, I am credited as a printer on Richard Serra’s Leo, included in Leo Castelli’s 90th Birthday Portfolio and documented in the National Gallery of Art collection records.

• Earned a BFA in Printmaking with Highest Honors from Pratt Institute and an MFA in Electronic Art with Highest Distinction from the University of New Mexico.

• Founder of toastlab, a community-based art initiative that uses creative practice, storytelling, and collaborative making to foster connection, collective memory, and creative exchange.

• Selected for artist residencies and fellowships including Vermont Studio Center, Furman University’s True Inspiration Artist Residency, and the Kinhouse Artist Residency. (Kinhouse⁠ )

• Recent exhibitions include Harwood Art Center (Albuquerque), Every Woman Biennial, Women’s Caucus for Art DC Chapter exhibitions, Upstream Gallery, and numerous national and international juried, invitational, and solo exhibitions.

• Creates art for everyday living, an ongoing creative practice that brings original artwork into daily life through artist-designed objects, textiles, books, prints, and small-batch goods shared through online platforms, art markets, and community events.

• More than two decades of experience as an artist, educator, master printer, and mentor supporting emerging artists and creative communities.