Alexis Schramel

Alexis Schramel (she/her) is a queer experimental artist whose interdisciplinary practice spans social engagement, collaboration, and installation. Raised in the rural farming communities of the Driftless Area along the Mississippi River, Alexis’s work is deeply influenced by the region’s unique ecology and the interplay of whimsy and brutality in its landscapes. Her artistic process bridges bodily boundaries and bio-materials, often exploring themes of sensory perception, duration, and reflection. Recently, Alexis has been focusing on traditional crafts, including papermaking, crochet, and fermentation.

Alexis is an adjunct professor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and Upper Iowa University. She serves as a committee member, juror, and youth public art director for Art in the Park in Elkader, Iowa, since 2020. Her contributions include directing public art projects and workshops for local youth, as well as organizing Art for a Lifetime initiatives for residents in long-term care facilities. In 2020, she presented her research on therapeutic artmaking at the Gerontological Society of America Annual Scientific Meeting. This work culminated in co-authoring the article, The Ritual of Therapeutic Artmaking in Long-Term Care, published in the International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education (Vol. 6, 2023). Alexis also teaches at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts and Franconia Sculpture Park, where she shares her expertise in local plant ecology and handmade papermaking techniques.

Her artwork has been exhibited both regionally and internationally, including shows at the Waterloo Center for the Arts, the Charles H. MacNider Art Museum, Tappan Collective in Leeds, England, and Leica 6x7 Gallery in Warsaw, Poland.