artist statement
Alex Spragens (born 1997 in Kentucky, USA) is a contemporary painter based in Chicago, Illinois. He works primarily in figurative oil painting, drawing from close observation of everyday life. His work examines the human condition as it is shaped by personal experience within broader social and political contexts, attending to the subtle, often ineffable phenomena of daily life.
bio
Alex Spragens was born and raised in the Appalachian foothills of southeastern Kentucky. Drawing was an early fascination, and his interest in art was encouraged from a young age by both family and teachers. He attended Centre College in Danville, Kentucky on a Dramatic Arts (Acting) scholarship, but after taking a class with visiting artist Ty Wilkinson, he shifted his focus to studio art. At Centre, Spragens studied drawing and oil painting under Professor Sheldon Tapley and graduated with a major in Studio Art and a minor in Art History.
In 2020, Spragens presented his first solo exhibition, Moon Women: Reflections from Vietnam, at Centre College’s Aegon Gallery. The work was informed by observations and experiences from a month studying abroad in Vietnam in the summer of 2019. His senior thesis exhibition was completed remotely during the COVID-19 quarantine. Following graduation in May 2020, Spragens lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for two years, where he taught art in the Philadelphia School District and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, while exhibiting work locally.
He later spent two years in Athens, Ohio while his partner attended graduate school, continuing to exhibit and remain actively involved in the local arts community.
Spragens now lives and works in Chicago, with his studio located in the Rogers Park neighborhood. He is deeply inspired by the city’s geography, architecture, and cultural life, and moving through Chicago shapes his observations and fuels his studio practice. The city has become a place he is committed to long-term, offering the conditions and community that support sustained work and artistic growth.