Bradley Sumrall, Curator of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art Collection, wishes John Alexander a Happy Birthday! John’s work, a contemporary embodiment of the natural South, has been widely exhibited across the U.S. and has been added to the permanent collections of many museums including the O’s! Recently, at the 2018 O What a Night! Gala, John was honored with the Opus Award. He was also a 2013 recipient of the Guild Hall Lifetime Achievement Award in East Hampton, New York.

“John Alexander may have left the South nearly 40 years ago, but the landscape and culture of his Texas home still permeates every inch of his surface,” says Bradley “His work is deeply rooted in the wild bayous of his childhood, but it is also forged in the crucible of formal training, tempered through immersion into the works masters such as Goya and Ensor, and refined through years of relentless and focused studio production. Throughout his career, symbolism and narrative have guided each brush stroke, each line, each composition. Through drawing and painting, John Alexander captures the savage beauty and heroic martyrdom of the natural world, as well as the darker side of human endeavor. His work is not art for art’s sake, but art for humanity’s sake – a cautionary tale of an impending environmental apocalypse and a reminder of what might be lost.”