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Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Self-Portrait, 2013 Sunset Strip billboard, Los Angeles© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Self-Portrait, 2013

Sunset Strip billboard, Los Angeles
© Alex Israel

Installation view, Alex Israel, Peres Projects, Berlin, 2011 Artwork © Alex Israel

Installation view, Alex Israel, Peres Projects, Berlin, 2011

Artwork © Alex Israel

Alex Israel, As It Lays, 2012 Mixed media, including flats, stage, Sky Backdrop painting, and sign, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los AngelesInstallation view, Le Consortium, Dijon, France, 2013© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, As It Lays, 2012

Mixed media, including flats, stage, Sky Backdrop painting, and sign, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Installation view, Le Consortium, Dijon, France, 2013
© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Easter Island Venice Beach, 2012 Rented cinema props, overall dimensions variableInstallation view, Venice Beach Biennial, presented by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Easter Island Venice Beach, 2012

Rented cinema props, overall dimensions variable
Installation view, Venice Beach Biennial, presented by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, The Bigg Chill, 2012–13 Marble and Styrofoam cup, 5 × 3 ½ × 3 ½ inches (12.7 × 8.9 × 8.9 cm), edition of 20© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, The Bigg Chill, 2012–13

Marble and Styrofoam cup, 5 × 3 ½ × 3 ½ inches (12.7 × 8.9 × 8.9 cm), edition of 20
© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Sky Backdrop, 2013 Acrylic on canvas, 108 × 192 × 4 inches (274.3 × 487.7 × 10.2 cm), Museum of Modern Art, New York© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Sky Backdrop, 2013

Acrylic on canvas, 108 × 192 × 4 inches (274.3 × 487.7 × 10.2 cm), Museum of Modern Art, New York
© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Valet Parking, 2013 (detail) Site-specific mural, Le Consortium, Dijon, France© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Valet Parking, 2013 (detail)

Site-specific mural, Le Consortium, Dijon, France
© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Lens, 2013 UV protective plastic lens, 96 × 84 × 14 ⅛ inches (243.8 × 213.4 × 35.9 cm), Centre Pompidou, Paris© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Lens, 2013

UV protective plastic lens, 96 × 84 × 14 ⅛ inches (243.8 × 213.4 × 35.9 cm), Centre Pompidou, Paris
© Alex Israel

Works from Alex Israel’s Self-Portrait series Installation view, Isbrytaren, Stockholm, 2013Artwork © Alex Israel

Works from Alex Israel’s Self-Portrait series

Installation view, Isbrytaren, Stockholm, 2013
Artwork © Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Maltese Falcon, 2013 Cast bronze with black patina, 10 ½ × 4 ½ × 3 ½ inches (26.7 × 11.4 × 8.9 cm), edition of 20© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Maltese Falcon, 2013

Cast bronze with black patina, 10 ½ × 4 ½ × 3 ½ inches (26.7 × 11.4 × 8.9 cm), edition of 20
© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Self-Portrait (Selfie and Studio Floor), 2014 Acrylic and Bondo on fiberglass, 96 × 84 × 4 inches (243.8 × 213.4 × 10.2 cm), The Broad, Los Angeles© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Self-Portrait (Selfie and Studio Floor), 2014

Acrylic and Bondo on fiberglass, 96 × 84 × 4 inches (243.8 × 213.4 × 10.2 cm), The Broad, Los Angeles
© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Untitled (Flats), 2014–15 Acrylic and stucco on aluminum, in 3 parts, left and right, each: 84 × 30 inches (213.4 × 76.2 cm), center: 96 × 60 inches (243.8 × 152.4 cm), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Untitled (Flats), 2014–15

Acrylic and stucco on aluminum, in 3 parts, left and right, each: 84 × 30 inches (213.4 × 76.2 cm), center: 96 × 60 inches (243.8 × 152.4 cm), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Self-Portrait (Wetsuit), 2015 Acrylic on aluminum, 79 ½ × 28 × 22 inches (201.9 × 71.1 × 55.9 cm), Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Self-Portrait (Wetsuit), 2015

Acrylic on aluminum, 79 ½ × 28 × 22 inches (201.9 × 71.1 × 55.9 cm), Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas
© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Desperado, 2015 Acrylic on bronze, 10 × 14 × 9 ½ inches (25.4 × 35.6 × 24.1 cm), edition of 8© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Desperado, 2015

Acrylic on bronze, 10 × 14 × 9 ½ inches (25.4 × 35.6 × 24.1 cm), edition of 8
© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Self-Portrait (Sunset Strip), 2016 Acrylic and Bondo on fiberglass, 96 × 84 × 4 inches (243.8 × 213.4 × 10.2 cm)© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Self-Portrait (Sunset Strip), 2016

Acrylic and Bondo on fiberglass, 96 × 84 × 4 inches (243.8 × 213.4 × 10.2 cm)
© Alex Israel

Installation view, Alex Israel | Bret Easton Ellis, Gagosian, Beverly Hills, 2016 Artwork © Alex Israel and Bret Easton Ellis. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view, Alex Israel | Bret Easton Ellis, Gagosian, Beverly Hills, 2016

Artwork © Alex Israel and Bret Easton Ellis. Photo: Jeff McLane

Alex Israel and Bret Easton Ellis, Different Kind of Star, 2016 Acrylic and UV ink on canvas, 84 × 168 inches (213.4 × 426.7 cm)© Alex Israel and Bret Easton Ellis

Alex Israel and Bret Easton Ellis, Different Kind of Star, 2016

Acrylic and UV ink on canvas, 84 × 168 inches (213.4 × 426.7 cm)
© Alex Israel and Bret Easton Ellis

Alex Israel, Sky Backdrop Mural, 2016 Site-specific mural, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Sky Backdrop Mural, 2016

Site-specific mural, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo
© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Pelican, 2017 Acrylic on fiberglass, stainless steel, aluminum, and plastic, 15 × 80 × 46 ⅞ inches (37.9 × 203 × 119.1 cm), edition of 3 + 1 AP© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Pelican, 2017

Acrylic on fiberglass, stainless steel, aluminum, and plastic, 15 × 80 × 46 ⅞ inches (37.9 × 203 × 119.1 cm), edition of 3 + 1 AP
© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Self-Portrait (Three Surfers), 2017 Acrylic and Bondo on fiberglass, 96 × 84 × 4 inches (243.8 × 213.4 × 10.2 cm), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Self-Portrait (Three Surfers), 2017

Acrylic and Bondo on fiberglass, 96 × 84 × 4 inches (243.8 × 213.4 × 10.2 cm), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
© Alex Israel

Poster for Alex Israel’s feature film SPF-18 (2017) Artwork © Alex Israel

Poster for Alex Israel’s feature film SPF-18 (2017)

Artwork © Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Wave, 2018 Acrylic on fiberglass, 96 ½ × 96 ½ inches (245.1 × 245.1 cm), Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Wave, 2018

Acrylic on fiberglass, 96 ½ × 96 ½ inches (245.1 × 245.1 cm), Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Self-Portrait (Arcade), 2018–19 Acrylic and Bondo on fiberglass, 96 × 84 × 4 inches (243.8 × 213.4 × 10.2 cm)© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Self-Portrait (Arcade), 2018–19

Acrylic and Bondo on fiberglass, 96 × 84 × 4 inches (243.8 × 213.4 × 10.2 cm)
© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Solo, 2019 Holographic video installation, overall dimensions variableInstallation view, Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Solo, 2019

Holographic video installation, overall dimensions variable
Installation view, Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York
© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Bat-Signal, 2019 Rented WWII-era spotlight modified with Batman logo, dimensions variableInstallation view, MAMO–Marseille Modulor, France© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Bat-Signal, 2019

Rented WWII-era spotlight modified with Batman logo, dimensions variable
Installation view, MAMO–Marseille Modulor, France
© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Self-Portrait (Pelican with Fish), 2019 Acrylic and Bondo on fiberglass with Snapchat augmented reality Lens, dimensions variable© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Self-Portrait (Pelican with Fish), 2019

Acrylic and Bondo on fiberglass with Snapchat augmented reality Lens, dimensions variable
© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Self Portrait (Enchanted Forest), 2020 Acrylic and Bondo on fiberglass, 96 × 84 × 4 inches (243.8 × 213.4 × 10.2 cm)© Alex Israel

Alex Israel, Self Portrait (Enchanted Forest), 2020

Acrylic and Bondo on fiberglass, 96 × 84 × 4 inches (243.8 × 213.4 × 10.2 cm)
© Alex Israel

About

Alex Israel explores and embraces pop culture as a global visual language. Deeply entwined with his hometown of Los Angeles, he traffics in the detritus of Hollywood film production—backdrops, sets, and props—while also inhabiting the roles of filmmaker, talk-show host, designer, and hologram. Israel’s art practice doubles as a brand, centered around a Southern Californian millennial lifestyle for which his iconic profile-in-shades Self-Portrait functions as a logo, mobilized across high-visibility platforms in the worlds of art, entertainment, fashion, and tech. Embedded within each of Israel’s endeavors are not only a landscape (of LA) and a portrait (of himself), but a savvy meditation on a world fueled by celebrity, product placement, and online influence.

Israel received a BA from Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, in 2003, and an MFA from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, in 2010. The following year, he began producing works at the Warner Bros. Design Studio in Burbank, California. These include Flats, a series of shaped panels airbrushed to suggest the distinctive gradients of LA sunsets, and Sky Backdrops, ethereal canvases depicting cloudy skies streaked with pink, blue, and orange. These series were born out of the set of As It Lays, a DIY talk show in which a deadpan Israel interviews celebrities about their everyday lives and routines as a form of portraiture. Israel’s Self-Portrait series began life as the show’s Hitchcock-inspired logo, evolving into color-block paintings on fiberglass panels, and ultimately into larger photorealistic paintings that feature the LA landscape, reflections on its culture industry, and clues to the artist’s process.

For Property, Israel’s first purely sculptural project, which he began as a student, he enlisted rented movie studio props as “inanimate actors” to perform the roles of various readymades in the gallery. Inversely, he will on occasion manufacture a seamless movie prop replica, transforming a silver-screen memory into a physical multiple. His Lenses, a series of high-gloss, massively scaled-up UV-protective plastic sunglass lenses, references 1960s California Finish Fetish sculpture and the artist’s own Freeway Eyewear brand. Self-Portrait (Wetsuits) are hollow cast aluminum figures that draw on classical antiquity, custom surf gear, and the artist’s feature-length take on the teen surf drama, SPF-18 (2017), which is available for streaming on Netflix and iTunes. Israel’s Waves, painting reliefs that turn the image of a cresting tide into yet another stylized logo, also have their origins in this film.

In 2016 and 2017, Israel’s collaboration with novelist Bret Easton Ellis resulted in two exhibitions of text paintings. Artist and author share a fascination with LA as both background and subject, and in their coproduced works reflect on the city’s mythos by setting Ellis’s short texts against Israel’s stock backdrops. Occupying the spaces of pop culture and media, Israel’s collaborations with Ellis, Louis Vuitton, Rimowa, and Snapchat—along with his own Infrathin Apparel clothing line and his embrace of mass platforms such as Netflix and YouTube—allow his work to engage directly with the mainstream, to glide across surfaces, from limited-edition consumer products to teenagers’ smartphone screens, moving through our thoughts, algorithms, and clouds.

Fairs, Events & Announcements

Jadé Fadojutimi, As usual, the season’s showers tend to linger, 2023 © Jadé Fadojutimi

Art Fair

Art Basel Hong Kong 2023

March 22–25, 2023
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
www.artbasel.com

Gagosian is pleased to participate in Art Basel Hong Kong 2023 with a presentation of modern and contemporary works by international artists.

Jadé Fadojutimi, As usual, the season’s showers tend to linger, 2023 © Jadé Fadojutimi

Gagosian’s booth at ART SG 2023. Artwork, left to right: © Ashley Bickerton; © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2022; © Banksy; © Zeng Fanzhi; © 2020 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

Art Fair

ART SG

January 12–15, 2023, booth BF05
Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Singapore
artsg.com

Gagosian is pleased to announce the gallery’s participation in the inaugural edition of ART SG, with a selection of works by international contemporary artists including Banksy, Georg Baselitz, Ashley Bickerton, Edmund de Waal, Helen Frankenthaler, Katharina Grosse, Mark Grotjahn, Damien Hirst, Howard Hodgkin, Thomas Houseago, Tetsuya Ishida, Alex Israel, Jia Aili, Harmony Korine, Takashi Murakami, Nam June Paik, Giuseppe Penone, Ed Ruscha, Spencer Sweeney, Sarah Sze, Tatiana Trouvé, Anna Weyant, Jonas Wood, and Zeng Fanzhi.

Gagosian’s booth at ART SG 2023. Artwork, left to right: © Ashley Bickerton; © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2022; © Banksy; © Zeng Fanzhi; © 2020 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

Gagosian’s booth at Art Basel Miami Beach 2022. Artwork, left to right: © Gerhard Richter; © Amoako Boafo; © Richard Prince; © 2022 Judd Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Richard Diebenkorn Foundation; © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Stanley Whitney. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

Art Fair

Art Basel Miami Beach 2022

December 1–3, 2022, booth D5
Miami Beach Convention Center
artbasel.com

Gagosian is pleased to present a selection of modern and contemporary works at Art Basel Miami Beach 2022. Returning to Miami for the fair’s twentieth anniversary, the gallery is honored to have participated each year the fair has been held.

Gagosian’s booth at Art Basel Miami Beach 2022. Artwork, left to right: © Gerhard Richter; © Amoako Boafo; © Richard Prince; © 2022 Judd Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Richard Diebenkorn Foundation; © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Stanley Whitney. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

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Museum Exhibitions

Alex Israel, Self-Portrait (Pelican with Fish), 2019 © Alex Israel

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Alex Israel × Snapchat

November 29, 2021–May 15, 2022
Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, Florida
thebass.org

This exhibition uses Snapchat’s augmented reality (AR) technology to bring Alex Israel’s Self-Portraits to life, transforming five of his paintings into portals to immersive animated experiences. “Lenses” accessed through the visitor’s smartphone overlay Snapchat’s groundbreaking AR onto Israel’s physical works to offer viewers a new experience of painting. A site-specific sixth work interacts with the museum’s historic Art Deco façade, bringing the building to life.

Alex Israel, Self-Portrait (Pelican with Fish), 2019 © Alex Israel

Installation view, Alex Israel: Freeway, Fosun Foundation, Shanghai, November 11, 2021–March 6, 2022. Artwork © Alex Israel. Photo: JJY Photo

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Alex Israel
Freeway

November 11, 2021–March 6, 2022
Fosun Foundation, Shanghai
www.fosunfoundation.com

Freeway features Alex Israel’s interpretations of the iconic Los Angeles motifs of sunshine, waves, and the sky, informed by his unique perspective on mass media and popular culture through the lens of his multiple identities as artist, entrepreneur, filmmaker, and talk-show host. This survey exhibition, covering the past decade of the artist’s career, includes works in a range of mediums, and is the first time that Israel’s Self-Portrait and Sky Backdrop series have been presented in China.

Installation view, Alex Israel: Freeway, Fosun Foundation, Shanghai, November 11, 2021–March 6, 2022. Artwork © Alex Israel. Photo: JJY Photo

Ewa Juszkiewicz, Untitled (After Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun), 2020 © Ewa Juszkiewicz

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Face à Arcimboldo

May 29–November 22, 2021
Centre Pompidou-Metz, France
www.centrepompidou-metz.fr

This exhibition, whose title translates to Arcimboldo Face to Face, invites visitors to explore the timeless vocabulary of the sixteenth-century painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo (c. 1527–1593). The show demonstrates how his work has influenced art history for more than four centuries through the work of 130 artists, including work by Francis Bacon, Glenn Brown, Alex Israel, Ewa Juszkiewicz, Roy Lichtenstein, Man Ray, Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin, and Ed Ruscha.

Ewa Juszkiewicz, Untitled (After Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun), 2020 © Ewa Juszkiewicz

Jonas Wood, Four Majors, 2018, Installation view, Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, University of California, Davis, June 3–November 12, 2021. Artwork © Jonas Wood. Photo: Cleber Bonato

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Wayne Thiebaud Influencer
A New Generation

June 3–November 12, 2021
Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, University of California, Davis
manettishremmuseum.ucdavis.edu

On the occasion of his 100th birthday, this exhibition explores the profound influence that Wayne Thiebaud, longtime UC Davis art professor, has had on subsequent generations of artists, including both fellow painters and his former students. Pairings explore how Thiebaud forecast the future of painting through his personal journey to find meaning and reinvention in the medium’s history. Work by Alex Israel and Jonas Wood is included.

Jonas Wood, Four Majors, 2018, Installation view, Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, University of California, Davis, June 3–November 12, 2021. Artwork © Jonas Wood. Photo: Cleber Bonato

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Press

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