The work of Alex Israel deals in the images and cultural eccentricities of his native Los Angeles. From his sunglasses company Freeway Eyewear to his YouTube talk show called As It LAys, wherein he interviews famous and not-so-famous Hollywood personalities, Israel is always plumbing the surface of the iconic pop culture of L.A. to better understand its global influence.
For his Sightings exhibition at the Nasher, Israel combined new sculptural objects made in the vernacular vocabulary of Hollywood movies to make a quasi-narrative installation related to a film that Israel is soon to release.
“Beyond its magical regionalism, for me, Los Angeles is America. Los Angeles is the place where the American Dream comes to life. We witness this on television, season after season. The American Dream is a powerful and moving thing. So much of the imagery that illustrates this dream is pure L.A. cliché. These clichés carry so much symbolic weight and meaning; they activate people's imaginations and inspire them to find a better way, and a better life.” --Alex Israel
Alex Israel Biography
Alex Israel was born in Los Angeles in 1982. His work is held in public collections that include Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, and Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Recent solo exhibitions include Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2014); New Holland, Saint Petersburg (2013); LAXART, Los Angeles (2013); Le Consortium, Dijon, France (2013); Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City (2012); and Museo Civico Diocesano di Santa Maria dei Servi, Città della Pieve, Italy (2012). Israel earned a BA from Yale University in 2003 and an MA from The Roski School of Fine Arts, University of Southern California in 2010. He lives and works in Los Angeles.
Sponsors
Sponsored by Sylvia Hougland.