Alexandra Karakashian was born in 1988 in Johannesburg, South Africa. She obtained her Master of Fine Arts Degree from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, in 2015. Notable awards include both the Judy Steinburg Painting Prize and the Simon Gerson Distinction Award in 2012, as well as the Jules Kramer Music & Fine Arts Scholarship and MacIver Scholarship in 2013. That same year, Karakashian was named as one of ten ‘Young African Artists of the Year’ by Business Day Wanted Magazine.During 2016 Karakashian presented GROUND a solo exhibition at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town, and Passage as a Special Project at 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London. Also in 2016, Karakashian completed a residency, awarded by Capo d’Arte in partnership with the French Academy in Rome, in Gagliano del Capo, Italy. The residency culminated in another solo presentation, self-titled Alexandra Karakashian, at the Villa Medici in Gagliano del Capo.Karakashian has exhibited in numerous group shows, most notably; In the Night I Remember at Stevenson in Johannesburg in 2013; Imago Mundi: The Art of Humanity in both Rome and Treviso, Italy in 2014; Sasol New Signatures Finalists 2014 in Pretoria, and Only Parts at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg also in 2014. Throughout 2015 Karakashian’s work formed part of MAP OF THE NEW ART at Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, Italy; BACK TO THE FUTURE II. Abstract Art in South Africa: Past & Present and LUSH, both at SMAC Gallery in Stellenbosch; Claim of the Land at the Association for Visual Arts in Cape Town as well as Defining the Narrative at Gallery MOMO also in Cape Town. Karakashian’s 2016 group exhibitions include The Art of Humanity at The Pratt Institute in New York, USA; Nothing Personal, SUMMER SHOW ’16, both at SMAC Gallery in Stellenbosch. 2017 has seen her participating in A Painting Today at Stevenson in Cape Town and X: PART I at SMAC Gallery in Stellenbosch.