Alex Gardner
Alex Gardner
b. 1987, Long Beach, CA
Lives and works in Long Beach, CA
Alex Gardner is a figure painter working in acrylic to make intense and memorable scenes. His entangled ink-black bodies are draped with dramatically folding white cotton separates and posed in pastel environments where the reflections of color produce subtle gradients and thoughtful tonal shifts.
As in Mannerist paintings, they capture drama with their bodies through the distortion of torsion, a clump of muscle, a knobby knuckle, a languid wrist. Over-articulated fingers and feet contrast with completely featurelessly smooth faces; expression is only through body language. Gender is hinted at but as with the skin and the clothes and the environments, all cultural signifiers are smoothed over to de-individuate and universalize.
In these paintings the artist charges the familiar with poignancy, highlights the details as important, and paints figures that all genders and races could see themselves in. Mimicking snippets of classical painting—from an El Greco hand to a Pietà carry, a crucifixion foot, a Michelangelo muscle group—he is not just inserting his contemporary identity into art history, but also opening up these art historical perspectives for all viewers to connect with.
Education
2011 BFA, California State University, Long Beach, CA
Solo Exhibitions
2021
Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA (forthcoming)
Koenig Gallery, Berlin, Germany (forthcoming)
2020
2019
Snooze Button, Mine Project, Hong Kong
Amnesia, Carl Kostyal Gallery, London, UK
The Armory Show, The Hole, New York, NY
2017
RomCom, The Hole, New York, NY
2016
Laugh Now Cry Now, New Image Art, West Hollywood, CA
2015
What is your reason for visiting?, The Dot Project, London, United Kingdom
Group Exhibitions
2019
They Gaze, James Fuentes Gallery, New York, NY
Malmö Sessions, Carl Kostyál, London
2018
UNTITLED Art Fair, The Hole, Miami Beach, FL
EXPO CHICAGO, The Hole, Chicago, IL
CODE Art Fair, The Hole, Copenhagen, Denmark
Art Athina, The Hole, Athens, Greece
Dallas Art Fair, The Hole, Dallas, TX
ZONA MACO, The Hole, Mexico City, Mexico
ALAC, The Hole, Los Angeles, CA
ZONA MACO, The Hole, Mexico City, Mexico
2017
EXPO Chicago, The Hole,Chicago, IL
New Image Art, VOLTA NY, New York, NY
2016
Winter Invitational, Jonathan LeVine Projects, New York, NY