Biography
Alex Fraser studies nineteenth and early-twentieth art, design, and decoration. Her teaching and research focus on spaces of domestic life and what they can tell us about shifts in private experience and the challenges of its representation under conditions of global modernity. Currently, these interests gather around two large projects. The first, a book manuscript with the working title Wallpaper and Window: The Interior and Social Experience in Fin-de-Siècle Art and Architecture, is a study of the domestic interior as a site of artistic experimentation and index of modern experience across late-nineteenth century Europe. The second is a nascent “biography” of home art collections in and around Detroit. This study explores the "livability" of European modernism amidst the sharp rise and transformation of the industrial Midwest, an interest that grew out of an exhibition project from 2018 entitled Assembly-Line Moderne, curated for the Albert Kahn Library in Metro Detroit.
Before coming to Chicago, Alex taught at Beloit College and led experimental, collections-based courses in conjunction with decorative arts institutions across the Midwest. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, M.A. from University of Chicago, and B.A. from University of British Columbia.