Born in 1973, Alexandra Grant is an American artist based in Los Angeles who explores language and text through different forms of art, such as drawing, photography, film, painting, and social issues. Grant develops ideas about writing based on semantic theory, which connects to art, and creates images inspired by text and group installations.
Early Life
Grant was born in 1973 in Fairview Park, Ohio, U.S. Her mother was an American professor of political science, a foreign service diplomat, and an educational administrator, while her father was a professor of geology. Her father was Scottish, and her mother often worked in the Middle East and Africa. After spending time in Africa, her parents divorced.
At that time, Grant was young and lived with her mother, who had moved to Mexico City. She attended a British school in Mexico City, which had students from many different countries.
When she was 11, she went to a boarding school called Thomas Jefferson School in St. Louis for about a year. She then moved with her mother to Paris and joined the International School of Paris.
As she lived in different parts of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, she learned to speak several languages, including English, Spanish, and French.
Career
Grant’s first solo exhibition took place at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles in 2007, organized by Alma Ruiz. The exhibition showcased a variety of her work on paper, an article by Alma about Grant’s art, and an essay by Helen Cixous, a French philosopher and writer.
Grant became known for “radical collaboration,” which refers to working closely with others on text, writing, and artistic content. She has been part of group exhibitions with artists such as Channing Hanses, Keanu Reeves, Helen Cixous, and Michael Joyce.
Grant often collaborates with her sister Florence, who is an editor and writer. The two sisters held a joint exhibition at The Archer School for Girls in Los Angeles, California.
In 2008, Grant participated in a housing project led by Edgar Arceneaux, a non-profit organization that aimed to renovate homes around Watt’s Towers. Each household in the project was paired with a team of an architect and an artist who helped redesign their home.
In 2015, she created a painting titled Antigone 3000, which was inspired by a Greek myth and the phrase, “I was born to love, not to hate.” For this work, Grant won the City of Los Angeles Mid-Career Artist Award (COLA) in 2015 and was later recognized at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in 2017.
After creating Antigone 3000, Grant co-wrote an article titled Antigone is Me with her sister Florence in 2017.
From 2009 to 2011, Grant worked as a professor at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. She also taught an MFA seminar at Cal State Northridge in 2010 and served as a mentor at the Pacific Northwest College of Art’s Distance MFA program from 2013 to 2014.
In 2015, Grant directed the documentary film Taking Lena Home. She met actor Keanu Reeves at a social event, and the two worked together on a book, which was Reeves’ first book as a writer and Grant’s first book as an artist. Their second collaboration came in 2016 with the book Shadow.
Alexandra Grant’s Net Worth
Most people’s net worths are nowhere near Keanu Reeves’ rumored $380 million, and while he donates a significant amount to charity each year, it’s not surprising that his many successful movies like The Matrix and John Wick have earned him a lot of money.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Grant’s net worth is around $500,000, which makes sense considering her charity work, time spent as a professor, and her career as an artist.
She’s Not an LA Native
Even though she is well-known in the Los Angeles art scene, Grant isn’t originally from LA. She spent a lot of her childhood living in places like Mexico, France, Spain, and Fairview Park, OH, where her father worked as a geology professor at Oberlin College.
Her mother was a political science professor, foreign service diplomat, and educational administrator who lived in Africa and the Middle East, so Grant spent time living outside the United States as well.
“I grew up in part in Mexico City, Washington, D.C., and Paris, moving between languages and cultures,” Grant told LA Weekly. “Los Angeles felt like home from the moment I first arrived in 1995, especially the diversity of people, idioms, foods, and plants (like jacaranda and bougainvillea).”
Reeves and Grant Made Their Red Carpet Debut in 2019
While there had been rumors about Grant and Reeves’ relationship for some time, they confirmed it when they made their red carpet debut together at the LACMA Art + Film Gala in 2019. In an interview with People a few months later, a source close to the couple said, “Keanu wants to openly share his life with her. He is extremely happy and grateful to have Alex in his life.”
The source added that they “started dating earlier this year, but have wanted to keep it quiet.”
Since both Grant and Reeves are known to be private people, it wasn’t surprising that Grant had mixed feelings about their decision to go public.
“I think every single person I knew called me in the first week of November, and that’s fascinating,” she said in a 2019 interview with Vogue. “But the question I’ve been asking in all of this is: ‘What is the opportunity for good?’ ”
She’s multilingual
Grant is multilingual due to her educational background and can speak English, Spanish, and French. While she now lives in L.A., much of her childhood involved attending various schools that exposed her to cultures beyond her own. She went to a British school in Mexico City, a boarding school in Missouri, and the International School of Paris in Europe.
“I grew up in part in Mexico City, Washington, D.C., and Paris, moving between languages and cultures,” she told LA Weekly in 2019. “Los Angeles felt like home from the moment I first arrived in 1995, especially the diversity of people, idioms, foods, and plants (like jacaranda and bougainvillea).”
They’re Both Philanthropists
Reeves is known for being one of the most generous people in Hollywood, so it wasn’t a surprise that he and Grant share this trait. According to multiple sources, the Matrix actor has donated millions of dollars to different charities throughout his career.
While he tends to keep his charitable actions private, some of the organizations he supports include PETA, the SickKids Foundation, Stand Up To Cancer, and others.
Grant, on the other hand, created the grantLOVE project, an art project designed to raise awareness and funds for various art nonprofits, like Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA) and Project Angel Food, through the sale and gift of her artwork.
Who did Keanu date before Alexandra?
When Keanu was first seen in public with Alexandra, many people were happy that the movie star had found a partner who was around his age. Before he started his relationship with Alexandra, Keanu had been in several relationships with more well-known women.
Early in his career, Keanu dated Sofia Coppola, who he is said to have met on the set of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. They broke up in 1992, and there were rumors that Keanu then dated his Speed co-star Sandra Bullock. However, both Sandra and Keanu denied ever having a romantic relationship off-screen, even though they had crushes on each other during filming.
In more recent years, Keanu’s relationships have been with less famous people. In 1998, he started dating actress Jennifer Syme.
Sadly, a year later, Jennifer had a stillbirth, and their relationship didn’t last long after that. In 2000, Jennifer tragically died in a car crash, ending any chance the couple had of getting back together.
There were rumors about Keanu being in a relationship with Claire Forlani from 2004 to 2006, but that relationship was never officially confirmed.
As for his relationship with Alexandra, reports say they have been dating for several years now. Their relationship appears to be one of the more stable and loving ones in Hollywood.
[Updated: 04/04/2025]
