Exhibition of new Self-Portraits by Alex Israel opens at Gagosian
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Tuesday, November 5, 2024


Exhibition of new Self-Portraits by Alex Israel opens at Gagosian
Alex Israel, Self-Portrait (Griffith Observatory), 2017. Acrylic and bondo on fiberglass, 96 x 84 x 4 in 243.8 x 213.4 x 10.2 cm © Alex Israel Photo: Jeff McLane Courtesy Gagosian



LONDON.- Gagosian is presenting Always On My Mind, an exhibition of new Self-Portraits by Alex Israel. This is his first solo exhibition in the United Kingdom.

A native of Los Angeles, Israel mines the cultural mythos of his hometown with polished optimism and calculated cool, melding nostalgic feelings with lucid perceptions of California living and the American Dream.

Israel has cultivated a close partnership with Warner Bros. Studios, beginning in 2010 when he rented Hollywood props from the studio’s warehouses and exhibited them as readymade sculptures. He has also collaborated with the studio’s scenic painting department on numerous large-scale series, including his dreamy, pastel-tinted Sky Backdrops, architecturally inspired Flats, and slick, vibrant Waves. The film industry has continued to play a central role in Israel’s work; in 2017, he made his directorial debut with SPF-18, a feature-length teen rom-com that pays tribute to classic surf movies.

Since 2012, Israel has hosted As it Lays, a DIY online talk show featuring Los Angeles–based celebrity guests. In its debut season, each episode opened with a title sequence in which Israel’s silhouette—decked out in sunglasses by Freeway Eyewear, the brand he founded in 2010—morphs into a color-blocked logo. By 2013, this video graphic had already developed into Israel’s Self-Portraits, a series of paintings on shaped fiberglass panels featuring crisp lines and bright gradients of color. The Self-Portraits are both a consciously self-branded signature made for the Instagram era and a deeper formal exploration into Southern California’s aesthetic history.

Recently, Israel has shifted the series toward photorealism, in addition to developing an increasingly introspective and self-referential approach toward the art of self-portraiture. In 2015, he presented a group of new Self-Portraits as part of his site-specific installation at the Huntington in San Marino, California. One painting shows him writing his signature across the back of another Self-Portrait; another depicts his hands as he takes a selfie—an endless visual loop that conflates artist and viewer.

In Always On My Mind, Israel addresses the effortless visual gloss that twenty-first-century image culture and social media demand of their participants. A seamless “establishing shot” of Mulholland Drive is stitched together from multiple aerial photographs; a panorama of Griffith Park is foregrounded by a young woman who is engrossed not by the sweeping view before her, but by the picture of it that she has just taken with her iPhone.

In other works, the original color-blocked portrait is rebranded in trompe l’oeil formats including a glowing neon sign to a stained glass window. The Self-Portraits examine the myth of the American West and an expanded idea of entertainment—two parallel narratives interwoven in the fabric of Israel’s hometown that also continue to inflect our culture at large.










Today's News

January 16, 2020

The complete painted works and unique miniatures of Jan Van Eyck now online

Asia Week New York presents panel discussion at The Winter Show

Hauser & Wirth announces representation of George Condo

Tamara de Lempicka, leading highlight of Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale at Christie's

Will Big Ben chime for Brexit? It's a $650,000 question

Andy Warhol through the lens

Forum Auctions to sell Banksy's first ever print

Whitney Houston and Nine Inch Nails make the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Budget blowouts and delays blight Germany's major arts projects

Betty Pat Gatliff, whose forensic art solved crimes, dies at 89

Ukiyo-e prints return from Japan for major exhibition a The Allen

Exhibition of new Self-Portraits by Alex Israel opens at Gagosian

Colleen Russell Criste appointed Deputy Director and Chief Philanthropy Officer at the Cleveland Museum of Art

Lorraine O'Grady adapts autobiographical work for latest Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Façade

Collection of Richard Kelton and important work by James Gill to highlight Clars January auction

Rare Posters Auction #80 features 520 rare and iconic works

Peru to deport tourists over Machu Picchu damage

Claire Burbridge's new exhibition at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is inspired by nature

Monterey Museum of Art opens "The Ripple Effect: The Art of Education"

University of Richmond Museums opens 'Because of Conflict: Photographs by Peter Turnley'

The Ukrainian Institute of America opens an exhibition of photographic portraits by J.T. Blatty

Exhibition presents a group of diverse international artists who reference weather in provocative ways

Ivan Passer, noted Czech director who came to Hollywood, dies at 86

HIX Award winner Elizabeth Eade's London solo exhibition opens

Top 2 Online PDF Converters

Easy Ways To Decorate Your Room Like an Artist




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Holistic Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful