Jane Alexander is a prolific sculptor who started showing great talent at a young age. She never gives any comment about her works. This forces viewers to examine her work closely and make their own interpretation. Early in her career she did comment: "Part of the reason I make things realistic is I don't really want to have to explain my work. What I wish to communicate is done so most readily, I think, through this type of realism. People can make their own interpretation, and if it's different to my idea it doesn't matter."
Alexander was born in Johannesburg in 1959. She studied at the University of the Witwatersrand and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art degree in 1982, followed by her Masters in Fine Art in 1988. She was the winner of the National Fine Arts Student Competition as well as the Martienssen Student Prize in 1982. Initially she majored in painting, but later she changed to sculpture, simply because she found she had a greater facility for it.
Alexander was quite protected from the police and street violence while growing up in the suburbs. When she moved to the city she was directly confronted with these aspects of society. The political situation in the country changed in the 1970s: black consciousness became very visible and the 1976 Soweto Uprising was an eye-opener for many people. Alexander's work sprung from her interest in the socio-political situation in South Africa.
At her university she was exposed to more information through students' underground organizations and their activities. She herself was not politically active and did not contribute to the struggle in this way. Her work, however, clearly responds to the violent situation in South Africa and she is indeed seen as one of the most worthy artists of the Resistance.
In 1995 Alexander won the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Fine Art. This award meant that she was rewarded by the art world for being an important artist within the South African art scene. Alexander now lives in Cape Town and is a senior lecturer at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, the University of Cape Town. She is also the mother of a baby boy.