John Alexander: Nature Observed

Berggruen Gallery is proud to present John Alexander, an exhibition of recent paintings and drawings by Texas-born, New York–based artist John Alexander. This show marks Alexander’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery and will be on view March 12 through April 2026. The gallery will host an opening reception for the artist on Thursday, March 12, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm.

A detailed collection of landscapes, flora, and fauna, John Alexander’s serene representational paintings portray the captivating and moody qualities of the natural world when closely observed. In reference to the nature-based consciousness he developed in his youth, Alexander depicts beautiful and rugged natural environments, both seen and imagined. Populated with diverse flora and fauna, this lush body of work reflects Alexander’s reverence for the tradition of landscape painting, as practiced by Monet and the Hudson River School painters. His vivid colors and bold gestural practice imbue each painting with a heightened sense of the environments conveyed.

Alexander grew up in East Texas, where he enjoyed camping and fishing trips within the lush landscape of bayous and wooded wilderness. While Alexander’s work captures nature at its best, it also offers a message of preservation. This awareness was initially imparted through his father’s influence as an avid environmentalist attuned to the damage caused by industry and pollution. Alexander’s subject matter may appear bucolic; however, the symbolic imagery and psychological undertones convey a complex vision of nature and the individual.

John Alexander was born in Beaumont, Texas, in 1945. He received his B.F.A. from Lamar University in Beaumont in 1968 and his M.F.A. from Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 1970. Following graduate school, Alexander taught at the University of Houston. Though the artist’s Texas roots influence much of his work, to solely categorize Alexander as a “Texas” artist would be inaccurate. In 1979, having established himself in Houston as a prominent local artist, Alexander moved to New York City. Today, the artist divides his time between his SoHo studio loft and his home in Amagansett, East Hampton. Alexander’s work has been widely exhibited at such prestigious institutions as the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, both in Washington, D.C., and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. His work is featured in the permanent collections of several leading institutions, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Dallas Museum of Art; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; as well as many other public and private collections worldwide.