Alexandra Grant Says Boyfriend Keanu Reeves Is an “Inspiration” for Her Art
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Sorry, Keanu Reeves fans, but the Canadian actor is still in a loving, committed relationship.
In November 2019, Reeves was spotted holding hands with Los Angeles–based artist Alexandra Grant on the red carpet at the LACMA Art + Film Gala. While the hand-holding may have come out of the blue for someone who doesn’t make their living tracking celebrity relationship statuses, Reeves and Grant have not only known each other for more than a decade, but have also allegedly been dating for years.
Keep reading to learn more about Grant, from her first artistic collaboration with Reeves back in 2011 to the art book publishing company she co-founded with the actor in 2017.
They met at a dinner party in 2009.
In a feature published by The New York Times, it's revealed that the two first crossed paths during a dinner party a decade ago. Not long after they met, they started working together.
Grant and Reeves have artistically collaborated before.
Grant created illustrations for Reeves's 2011 book, Ode to Happiness, which pegs itself as "a grown-up's picture book" that is "both a meditation and a gentle tease about how we cope with life's sorrows."
In 2016, the duo came together again to create Shadows, a series that "explores the real and symbolic nature of the shadow as image and figure of speech," with photography by Grant and text by Reeves.
They cofounded a publishing company.
In 2017, the artistic duo cofounded X Artists' Books, a small publishing house that focuses on artist-centered books. Some books that the company has published include The Artists' Prison, The Words of Others, and Oracular Transmissions.
They've made public appearances together before.
This past June, Reeves and Grant even attended Saint Laurent Men's spring-summer 2020 runway show in Malibu holding hands.
Before that, the two attended 2019's MOCA Benefit at The Geffen Contemporary in Los Angeles and the UNAIDS Gala at the 2016 Art Basel in Switzerland.
Grant also founded the GrantLOVE Project.
According to its website, the GrantLOVE Project "is an artist-owned and operated project that produces and sells original artworks and editions to benefit artist projects and arts non-profits." Since 2008, Grant has used sales from the project to raise funds for various Los Angeles–based charities or art projects.
Her artwork has been featured in a lot of galleries.
From her home base in Los Angeles to across the country in New York City to even the cobblestoned streets of Paris, Grant's eclectic artwork has been featured in galleries around the world. This includes the Galerie Gradiva in Paris, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles, and the Harris Lieberman Gallery in New York City.
Currently, some of her painted sculptures are on view at the Lowell Ryan Projects in Los Angeles.
Grant spoke openly about their relationship for the first time in 2020.
For the first time ever, Grant spoke publicly about her relationship with Reeves in an interview with British Vogue. “I think every single person I knew called me in the first week of November, and that’s fascinating,” she told the outlet, referring to her and Reeves's appearance at the art gala. “But the question I’ve been asking in all of this is: ‘What is the opportunity for good?’”
Grant also touched on the first time the couple worked on publishing together for their 2011 collaboration on Ode to Happiness, in which Reeves's poems accompany Grant's drawings. “The book was made as a surprise, by me, for Keanu, as a private gift,” she said. “All our friends sitting in the room got the giggles when I gave it to him—they said, ‘Please publish it!’ So that’s how we got into publishing.”
A close friend explained why Grant and Reeves just work together.
Pal Jennifer Tilly also previously told Page Six at the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women Red Dress Collection that Keanu and Alexandra are old news.
“I remember a couple years ago, about a year and a half ago, [Grant] said, ‘Keanu Reeves is my boyfriend’ and I’m like, ‘Wait. What? What? What?’” she recalled. “She was so cool I thought she was a lesbian.”
Tilly adds, “It’s really astonishing to me how in the last five months, all of a sudden, she goes to an event with him and everybody goes insane, like, ‘It’s his new girlfriend,’ because she had gone to a lot of events with him. It’s just suddenly surfaced that he’s been dating her for several years.”
Are Reeves and Grant a good match? Tilly thinks they're perfect for each other.
“I saw him at her last art opening, and he’s not, like, wanting the spotlight, because he’s a really low-key guy, too, and I think why everybody went crazy is that they’re sort of the perfect couple,” she said. “I think everybody wishes that they had something like that. It’s not a razzle dazzle Hollywood romance.”
She added that Grant's mystique matches Reeves's, calling her a “cool, elegant woman — very quiet, very low-key.” Meanwhile, the acclaimed actor “is a really great guy, too, but he’s really lucky.”
On the subject of whether or not they'll ever marry, Tilly said, “I don’t know that doesn’t seem very hip and bohemian, does it? They’re artists. They’re just going to do what they do.”
Grant said Reeves is an “inspiration” for her art.
In a September 2023 interview with People, the artist spoke openly about her relationship with Reeves.
“What I love about Keanu and our exchange is that we're pushing each other to build new roads,” she told the outlet. “Seeing the other person's problem-solving is inspiring, like, ‘Oh, well, okay, this one, that's a cul-de-sac. How do I try this other thing?’” She added, “He's such an inspiration to me. He's so creative, he's so kind. He works so hard.”
Grant drew parallels between both of their crafts.
“My work is much more of a private performance, but I have a text that I interpret in the studio into a painting, into an object,” she explained. “He takes the text in private and then turns it into a performance in public. There's a relationship. We're both at the heart readers and researchers. We both care about people and we care about characters.”
Reeves has helped her make art that's “happier,” Grant said: “I had a studio visit a few years ago, and this very kind, very high-level person said, 'I can see that your work has gotten happier.’ That's real. We're all human beings. We're animals. We're expressing from where we are and certainly feeling happier. I think the work is happier.”
She also talked about the benefits of forming a long-lasting relationship as a mature adult. “The good news about falling in love as an adult is that I had built my own career by the time that my relationship had begun. I feel very confident in the relationship on the red carpet. I feel confident on it alone,” she said. “It's interdependent and independent in the best ways.”
As for Reeves's recent reunion with his alternative rock band, Dogstar, Grant said, “I'm really proud. I am a huge Dogstar fan. I had the great pleasure of going to their first public show and because I've been listening to the latest album for quite some time, I was one of the only people in the audience who knew all the lyrics. That was really cool. It's fun. It's beyond fun.”
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