Alexandra Nickolaou is a doctoral student in the Department of Art History at Indiana University. Her research interests highlight cross-cultural interactions of found/recycled materials in contemporary West African art. This includes issues of materiality, neocolonialism, Othering, the globalization of “modernism” and “modernity,” the African Diaspora, and the interplay of technology and art.
In addition to her research, Alexandra has held positions at the Eskenazi Museum of Art, the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, and the Detroit Institute of Arts where she co-curated or assisted in curating several exhibitions: Weaving Identities: African Diasporic Arts of the Americas (McCalla School, IU, 2022), The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China (Smart Museum of Art, 2020), Down Time: On the Art of Retreat (Smart Museum of Art, 2019), Ruben & Isabel Toledo: Labor of Love (Detroit Institute of Arts, 2018) and Rhythm, Repetition, and Vocab: Carole Harris and Allie McGhee (Detroit Institute of Arts, 2018). Additionally as a graduate student, Alexandra recently published her essay, “Creating a Home Away from Home: Cross-Cultural Connections in the Work of Ato Ribeiro,” in the 96th volume of the Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts (2022).
Alexandra holds degrees from the University of Chicago, Oakland University and Central Michigan University.
She will hold a Foreign Language Area Studies fellowship for summer 2023 at the University of Ghana and the 2023-2024 academic year to continue her studies of the Akan/Twi language.
She is currently the President of the Art History Association in the Department of Art History at Indiana University.
Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies