Julian Adon Alexander: Snakes Have Bones

Author: Jasmin Hernandez (Editor)
Publisher: Good Black Art
Year:2025
Pages: 576
ISBN: 979-8989866816

Snakes Have Bones immerses us in the small and dark world of wonder experienced in Julian Adon Alexander’s drawings and illustrations. Raised between New York City and Connecticut, and now Queens-based, Alexander creates a fictional urban universe that’s dark, wintery, and semi-dystopian. The artist’s debut monograph includes compelling and thoughtful essay contributions from various celebrated artists and illustrators, showcases over 200 small scale drawings (spanning 2020-2024), mostly graphite on toned paper, including his early works from the School of Visual Arts to present day. 

The DNA in Alexander’s drawings are pulled from his deep connections to comic books, anime, pop culture, and the internet. He explores complex feelings in his textural drawings –from vulnerability to anxiety– through self-portraits and depictions of relatable Black Gen Z figures. The young Black people in Alexander’s work, real or imagined, are accessible and intriguing. They’re friends and family members, they wear puffer coats in cold weather, and scroll on their phones to avoid awkward moments. And, they’re also, all Alexander too, pieces of him.