#alexandragrant

Here's some beautiful photos of my favorite and lovely couple Keanu Reeves & Alexandra Grant 💕💌💓🥰

Keanu Reeves and Alexandra Grant’s love story is quiet, deep, and beautifully unexpected. They met around 2009 and first connected as friends and creative partners. Alexandra, a talented artist, illustrated Keanu’s book Ode to Happiness in 2011. Their bond grew through long conversations, shared values, and a deep appreciation for art, poetry, and life’s quieter moments.

For years, they worked side by side-collaborating again on Shadows in 2016 and co-founding a publishing company called XArtistsBooks in 2017. Their connection was always there, steady and strong, built on trust and respect. In 2019, they surprised the world by holding hands at an art gala, revealing what friends had long suspected-they were in love.

What makes their story so special is how grounded it is. Keanu, known for his kindness and humility, treats Alexandra as his equal. He’s thoughtful, gentle, and genuinely good-opening doors, listening closely, lifting others up. She brings light into his life, and he’s said to smile more, laugh more, and simply be at peace around her.

They’re not flashy. You’ll find them riding bikes, browsing bookstores, or walking hand in hand through art exhibits. In early 2025, they were seen in London, looking completely in love-comfortable, calm, and full of joy. Alexandra wore a delicate ring, sparking rumors of an engagement. But true to their style, they haven’t made an announcement.

Ohh I get it now, I really do. Alexandra Grant, si no existieras te inventaría.

Artist Alexandra Grant"Couldn't avant-garde mean being a woman?"

Next Previous 📷 Photo: Ruben Diaz Artist Alexandra Grant

Text by Anna SinofzikDate 07/23/2021 art Save to Pocket The US artist Alexandra Grant, who will be exhibiting in Berlin from Saturday, deals with myths and the power of words. In an interview she talks about ancient models, feminism in the art world and love in times of hatred and agitationAlexandra Grant, how long have you been in Berlin?I arrived on June 1st and will stay until the end of August. Last year I was here for five months. And before that, six weeks in Potsdam. I like to change my location often. That works well because I work a lot on paper and often only put my large-format pictures together at the end, sometimes I only see them as a whole when they are installed in the gallery. I don't need a big studio, I work here in the apartment, on the floor, on the wall.As the daughter of a diplomat, you moved a lot during your childhood, lived in different countries and on different continents.Yes, that's probably why I'm so flexible and open to change. I can just pack up my things, arrive in a new city, unpack and usually find my way around straight away. Of course, I also get culture shocks from time to time. You never know what a new environment will do to you. But I experience Berlin, the rhythm of the city, as extremely pleasant right now. I also have the feeling that art is treated with greater seriousness here. And I enjoy being in a different time zone.Los Angeles, your actual adopted home, is lagging behind the global events of the day . This is also emphasized by Mathew Hale, who curates the group exhibition "The Youngest Day" at Galerie Carlier Gebauer, in which one of your large-format pictures will be on view. "By the time Southern California wakes up, most important things have already happened elsewhere in the world," he writes in his exhibition text.Exactly. That gives me peace here. Hardly anyone calls when I'm working because everyone is still asleep over in America. Perfect working conditions!The exhibition brings artistic positions from Los Angeles to Berlin. How would you describe your relationship with LA?I spent a large part of my childhood moving between Mexico and the United States, including living in France and Spain at times. So very international, with dual citizenship, parents with different nationalities. LA is nice and warm and close to Mexican culture. I first moved in 1995, then permanently in 2001. Back then the city was still very cheap and I was impressed by its generosity. I've also always been very interested in Language Art, in LA there have been people like John Baldessari and Barbara Kruger, there is a rich history of conceptual painting there. I also like people's do-it-yourself mentality, they believe in their own possibilities. Another big reason I wanted to go to LA at the time was becauseIs that an advantage?My parents were well connected, and it always felt like we knew people everywhere, no matter where we went. But I had to know that I can do it on my own. Against all odds. I got my first marriage proposal at the age of 21. This man said to me at the time: You will get a large studio in Italy. If I had let myself into it, I would probably never have developed a healthy level of self-confidence.I would like to talk to you about language, which is an important aspect of your job. But also a form of home, a means of self-discovery, coming to terms with oneself and the past. An important thought in the theory of Hélène Cixous you worked with. ..I think the urge to write often results from the feeling that the world one carries within is not - or at least not sufficiently - represented in the outside world. I have always admired Hélène very much, we complement each other well . Through them I learned how to tell other people's stories without taking up their space. It goes back to their definition of telepathy - this is also what the book we made together is about: While empathy implies a certain power imbalance, telepathy is based on equality.Her work, which will be shown at Carlier Gebauer, is part of a series that takes up the story of Antigone from the ancient

tragedy of Sophocles. You keep working with this one quote: "I was born to love, not to hate." A current message in times of hate speech and cyberbullying. How long have you been involved with Antigone?It already appears in a notebook of mine that is almost 30 years old. I started the series of works seven years ago, in the Obama era, before the rhetoric of hatred was widely used as a weapon. The role of the warrior, who stands up for the outcasts and outlaws, has always been very appealing to me. My name, Alexandra Grant, means "great protector, defender".What I find interesting in the context of this exhibition, which is on the one hand about one place (Los Angeles) and on the other hand about the relocation of artistic positions to another place (Berlin), is Antigone's background story: As Oedipus' daughter, she accompanies her blind one , exiled father. She acts as a kind of escape helper.That's correct. But it's less about the impulse to run away than about following your own intuition. By the way, I think that's one of the reasons a lot of people move to LA: They're looking for their intuition. For me, Antigone embodies this inner belief in a higher truth, in a personal code of values ​​and morals that is above the law.It has a strange aftertaste these days ...Of course, in all the conspiracy theories that haunt the Internet, it is evident that such ideas and terms can be easily manipulated. Spirituality, including spiritual language, has become dangerous - whether it is QAnon, anti-vaccination agents, or these new yogi-Nazis who use it for their own purposes. In Antigone's case, anti-authority is something very authentic, based on a profound philosophical point of view that is as universal as it is radical. That is also interesting in the context: What does it actually mean to stand above the law, to disregard rules? When can or should we do it? When does order have to be disrupted? It's a constant negotiation process that also takes place in my pictures.At first they have a positive energy. But yes, you can also see fighting forces, a certain clash.That’s what it’s also about, antagonism. On the one hand there is chaos, which has something mighty about nature. Then the straight lines, a certain harmony. Structures that have to be broken again and again.It seems to be similar with language as a power structure.Absolutely. I am strongly influenced by the feminist theory of language, especially the French of the 1968, as represented by Hélène Cixous. How much do our linguistic structures control us, and how can we get over such mechanisms? How can we make language our own? Antigone carries her sentence like a weapon in the fight for good. We almost always have to use language if we want to stand up for something and especially the feminine stand up for herself has to be done through language. But of course it's not just the language. In Antigone's story, too, in the end it is not the language itself that defines the drama, but its plot.How do you perceive the debate on gender equitable language? After all, English is a little less masculine than German or French because there aren't as many gender-specific words ...In American English we have expressions like "guys!" or "dude!". Very Californian. The alternative would be something like "y'all", but you don't want to sound like a southerner either, if only because of the racism that is deeply rooted there. Then there are all these gender-neutral word formations like "LatinX". And the "they / them" pronouns, that's a big topic. The discussion and also the discomfort it creates in many is important - we are in a crucial transition phase. But other things have to happen at the same time. There is no social justice as long as there is no economic one. For me as an artist this means in concrete terms: As long as there is no real change in who controls the funds in this industry, can hardly change anything decisively. Numbers don't lie.Which do you find particularly remarkable?"Artnet" carried out a survey some time ago, over a period of ten years, from 2009 to 2019:

Only 11 percent of new acquisitions by American museums are works by women artists. I think we're doing a lot of visual corrections in society right now, but are we really creating change? The answer is: definitely not enough. That is why many female artists stop at some point because they no longer want or can no longer fight these adversities. If you continue despite feeling the external pressure, then for me it is a gesture that is comparable to showing yourself as a queer person in public. Asserting yourself as a different body in a hostile environment is always radical.I was on a panel with curator Dan Cameron and two very nice male artists at the Orange County Museum years ago. The title of the show in question was absurd: "The Avantgarde Collection". And these three men then talked to themselves, according to the motto, the avant-garde is dead, everything is said in art. And I asked, "Couldn't 'being avant-garde' mean being a woman?" There was silence on the stage. Until the audience started to clap.And then? Did none of the panellists comment on this?After that, the conversation continued as if nothing had happened. Even afterwards at dinner nobody broached it. You just felt this tense mood.The elephant in the room ... Does that happen often?There are strange moments. A few years ago I stood on the podium at the Pasadena Museum of California Art to talk about an exhibition I did with Steve Roden. The first question from the audience was what kind of dress I was wearing. Basically, I often have the feeling that as a woman I have to somehow explain or justify myself for everything I do artistically. As if I had to get someone's permission to do what I do ...In preparation for our conversation, I took a book by the cultural critic and book artist Johanna Drucker from the shelf, with whom you recently attended a panel: In a chapter entitled "Writing with Respect to Gender", Drucker emphasizes that the decision to writing instead of speaking reveals an instinct of self-assertion, as writing is more substantial, consistent, controllable, and respected than the spoken word. Perhaps that can also be applied to painting. Does the written word seem more reliable to you than the abstract form? Does this have anything to do with your decision to work with language?When I think about the quote, it first reminds me of the gestural markings in graffiti, of this urge to say: I was here. I'm here. You cannot ignore me. Once the written word is in a picture, it cannot be ignored. If it weren't for the words in my pictures, they would be too beautiful. It is language that creates discomfort and tension in them. They are a disruptive factor in the room that cannot simply be copied off. On the other hand, they can provide an entry point into the more abstract ideas.The panel you were on with Drucker had artist books on the subject. You and your partner, actor Keanu Reeves, have been running the small publisher X Artists' Books since 2017 . Why books?I think that not every exhibition has to be an exhibition and that some ideas should better be put into book form. Books offer opportunities, especially for artists who are not yet so established. Of course, they do not replace exhibition projects, but they can be a concept, a germ in the sense of seeds that can be brought into the world so that something bigger can emerge from it. That is my motivation to work on books with artists. I want to give them a platform, an exhibition space between two book covers. If you don't have a museum show, a book can lead to one. I know examples. It's also about the book as an object, of course, but it's often a beginning.How do you deal with all the fuss that came from the LACMA gala 2019? After all, that was your work lunch to which you were accompanied by your partner. The press apparently assumed the opposite ...There were a lot of comments about my hair, not my art. As an artist, working woman and feminist, the way in which female biographies are told is important to me. The desire to erase yourself is very real. Especially online. What I had

Drawing Inspiration: Alexandra Grant

Alexandra Grant is a visual artist with an interdisciplinary love of language, specifically the written word in her paintings, sculpture, photography, installations, collaborative projects and publishing.

Images above all artworks and projects by Alexandra Grant, from top:

She said to Creon (9, 2018, Collage, wax rubbing, acrylic paint and ink, sumi ink and colored pencil on paper mounted on fabric80 × 72 in203.2 × 182.9 cm taken from artsy where her work is available through her gallery Lowell Ryan Projects

First Portal -- Mind, 2008, mixed media on paper, 114 in. x 80 in.

Body (1), 2010, oil on linen, 80 in. x 70 in.

Love House, 2008, photograph, 10 in. x 10 in. Learn more about the love house project here. 3 images of "Forêt Intérieure/Interior Forest" project at 18th Street Arts Center site in Los Angeles, CA, 2013. Learn more about the multi-faceted project here.