Alex Israel | b. 1982, Los Angeles

Paintings on canvas, flashmobs, the creation of a commercial company dedicated to a brand of eyewear and its related advertising, hosting a talk-show, interviews, webseries, sculptures, a movie...: this apparently heterogeneous ensemble, which comprises the work of Alex Israel is, in fact, quite consistent. The homogeneity is to be found not in the consistency of medium, but rather in the consistency of its narrative: Alex Israel’s work is eminently narrative, and the tale told through his work is perfectly encapsulated in the subtitle Alex Israel chose for the book dedicated to him (and published by the Presses du Réel) : ‘b. 1982, Los Angeles’.
In this short phrase, often appended to the subject’s name in biographies, both parts are equally important. In his work, ‘Los Angeles’ is both the iconographic source and the main subject - at least an idealized, hyper-media-friendly image of Los Angeles, the city whose beating heart lies in Hollywood, and all this name conveys. Prefixed with ‘b. 1982’ and thus steeped in the knowledge of the art and industry surrounding it at that particular moment in time, with this title Alex Israel has given his work the best pitch of all : it speaks only of what it is
to be an artist of his generation and to confront the artistic world using a Hollywood perspective as its absolute reality.
The work created for Le Mur rue Saint-Bon features the original design commissioned from the illustrator Robert Giusti for the cover of the monograph presented at this exhibition.

Eric Troncy

Courtesy Le Mur 8 Rue Saint-Bon, Paris

Press release

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Alex Israel

b. 1982, Los Angeles

Oct 20, 2016 — Jan 21, 2017 | Le Mur, 8 Rue Saint-Bon, Paris

Paintings on canvas, flashmobs, the creation of a commercial company dedicated to a brand of eyewear and its related advertising, hosting a talk-show, interviews, webseries, sculptures, a movie...: this apparently heterogeneous ensemble, which comprises the work of Alex Israel is, in fact, quite consistent. The homogeneity is to be found not in the consistency of medium, but rather in the consistency of its narrative: Alex Israel’s work is eminently narrative, and the tale told through his work is perfectly encapsulated in the subtitle Alex Israel chose for the book dedicated to him (and published by the Presses du Réel) : ‘b. 1982, Los Angeles’.
In this short phrase, often appended to the subject’s name in biographies, both parts are equally important. In his work, ‘Los Angeles’ is both the iconographic source and the main subject - at least an idealized, hyper-media-friendly image of Los Angeles, the city whose beating heart lies in Hollywood, and all this name conveys. Prefixed with ‘b. 1982’ and thus steeped in the knowledge of the art and industry surrounding it at that particular moment in time, with this title Alex Israel has given his work the best pitch of all : it speaks only of what it is
to be an artist of his generation and to confront the artistic world using a Hollywood perspective as its absolute reality.
The work created for Le Mur rue Saint-Bon features the original design commissioned from the illustrator Robert Giusti for the cover of the monograph presented at this exhibition.