Alexandra Karakashian was born in 1988 in Johannesburg, South Africa. She currently lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa. Karakashian obtained her Bachelor of Fine Art degree at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town in 2011. On graduation, she was awarded both the Judy Steinberg Painting Prize and the Simon Gerson Distinction Award. She went on to graduate with a Masters degree in Fine Art from the same institution in 2015. Karakashian was an artist in residence at Capo d’Arte in Gagliano del Capo, Italy in 2016. The residency culminated in a solo presentation, self-titled Alexandra Karakashian, at the Villa Medici in Gagliano del Capo.Karakashian recently presented her most recent body of work with SMAC Gallery at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair in Cape Town, South Africa as part of the curated SOLO Section. Her work is currently included in Matereality, a group exhibition at Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town, South Africa.
In 2019 Karakashian’s work formed part of notable group exhibitions including, Inner Landscapes at Galleria Anna Marra in Rome, Italy; Material Insanity, at MACAAL in Marrakech, Morocco; SMAC Gallery’s presentation at the 13th edition of Art Dubai, in Dubai, UAE; and Filling in the Gaps, at Iziko South African National Museum in Cape Town, South Africa. Solo exhibitions include: A rhythm for falling, at Sabrina Amrani Gallery in Madrid, Spain in 2019; here they passed at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town, South Africa and In on itself, at the Marianne Ibrahim Gallery in Seattle, USA, in 2018; unbecoming, at