Being a keen observer of Riverside and its everyday moments is the main source of inspiration for Alexa Chmura.
An artist who works primarily in inks and oils, Chmura and her husband, Thomas, fell in love with Riverside after moving here two years ago. It wasn’t long when those flashes of a vibrant community ended up on canvas.
You can see many of them if you visit Riverside township hall between now and May 6, where 11 pieces of Chmura’s art will be on exhibition – the first of her career – titled “Imprints of the Familiar.”
Familiarity is the word when it comes to this showing. One of the most prominent pieces is a rendering of the Riverside Spire, an acrylic-on-canvas image that measures 20×16 inches.
“For this exhibit, I wanted to draw on the everyday moments and show people you don’t have to travel all the time to be inspired. There are subtle details you might not notice on your daily routine.
“What you do every day ends up being your life.”
Joanne Aono, exhibitions director at the Riverside Arts Center, who worked with Chmura to curate the exhibition pieces, said that Chmura and her work caught her attention when Chmura and her husband dropped in the gallery one day not long ago to check out what was happening in the local art scene.
“She submitted a piece to our member’s exhibition, and we liked it,” Aono said. “I really like to help artists in their emerging stages, and we’ve given a lot of artists their first solo shows. So she’s very excited about it, as are we.”
A reception honoring Chmura will be hosted at 5 p.m. March 7 at the Riverside Arts Center, 32 E Quincy St. At the same time, the town hall will be open for exhibition viewing. In addition to the reception, the annual Riverside-Brookfield High School Advanced Placement art exhibition will be on display at the center’s Freeark Gallery, while its Flex Space gallery will have an emerging artists exhibition curated by Triton College student Madelyn Roldan, the center’s gallery assistant. It is Roldan’s first curated exhibition.
Chmura grew up in Elmhurst, where taking an Advanced Placement art class in high school was a major impetus for her artistic passion. She went to the University of Wisconsin and studied communications and graphic design, while simultaneously honing her drawing and painting skills.
After a spell in Minnesota, she and her husband moved to Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood for a year before house hunting in the suburbs. Her mom suggested Riverside, and that was that.
“As soon as we drove in, I was like, ‘I love this, I want to be here,’” she said, adding that she works as a proposal manager for an engineering firm in Chicago, and that the trains to and from the city are “super accessible.”
Chmura is an entrepreneur as well, launching the Lexline brand when she was in college, selling tote bags with her drawings emblazoned on the side via a Madison boutique and online. In fact, one of her coolest experiences as an artist was going to class and seeing another student with one of her bags. She calls that seeing “my work in the wild.”
For young artists, even as young as high school or even grammar school, Chmura has advice for those who would step into her larger world.
“Try to be involved as much as you can,” she said. “This exhibition came about because I joined the Riverside Arts Center and going to other shows and finding out what your local community has to offer.
“Just going out and finding what you’re interested in and passionate about is key.” Chmura said.