Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka (b.1988 in Toronto, Canada) is a Japanese-Canadian queer artist who lives with bipolar disorder, and these factors shape her artistic practice. She studied printmaking at OCAD University in Toronto. Hatakana primarily works with paper, combining techniques that use printmaking, ink drawing, and natural dyeing with hand sewing, whose convergence references traditional paper techniques and materials. In 2011, Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka studied traditional woodblock printmaking in China, where paper originated, and since then she has researched paper’s history, its cross-geographic influence, and current efforts to revive making.
Her patchworked paper textiles honor mottainai by saving sewing offcuts and linking works, reference ancient fish mythologies, sometimes include paper rice bags, reuse earlier block matrices, use vintage washi from Kashiki Seishi (some over 50 years old), and are starched with konnyaku to become flexible, durable textiles that layer history.
Solo exhibitions include In case my mind [betrays] me, let me say one last thing., Trotter & Sholer, New York, USA (2024); susceptibility to gravity, Patel Brown Gallery, Montreal, Canada (2024); Unchanging and changing and changing, Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, Toronto, Canada (2023); side by each 2.0, AXENE07, Gatineau, Canada (2022); Alexa Hatanaka | side by each, Patel Brown Gallery, Toronto, Canada (2021); to, from, on and within, Banff Centre for Arts, Alberta, Canada (2019).
Group exhibitions include (Upcoming) Orbital, Kristin Hjellegjerde, Berlin, Germany (2026); Patience & Persistence, Embassy of Canada in Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan (2025); Ohayo Radio: A Conversation Between Friends, Ino-Cho Paper Museum, Kochi, Japan (2024); Crossing, Kotaro Nukaga Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (2022); Washi 和紙: connecting cultures, countries, and generations, Nikkei National Museum — Karasawa Gallery, Burnaby, Canada (2022); Land, Humanity and Threat, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada (2022); GTA21 Triennial, Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto, Canada (2021).
Highlights and Collections. Hatanaka’s artworks can be find in the following collections:
Art Bank Banquedart, Ottawa, Ontario (2023); Additionally, she is currently a resident artist at Black Rock Senegal in Dakar, Senegal.