Alex Da Corte

Alex Da Corte (born 1980) is an American conceptual artist who works in painting, sculpture, installation, and video. Da Corte often uses surreal imagery and everyday objects in his practice and explores ideas of consumerism, pop culture, mythology, and literature.[1]

Alex Da Corte
Born1980 (age 42–43)
Camden, New Jersey, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
EducationYale University
Websitealexdacorte.com

He has shown internationally at Bodega, Gió Marconi, Josh Lilley Gallery, Maccarone, Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, and Institute of Contemporary Art. Da Corte has worked on a number of collaborative projects with other visual artists, writers, and musicians including Jayson Musson, Dev Hynes, Sam Mckinniss, and Annie Clark.[2] In February 2021, his works were selected for inclusion in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's roof garden collection.[3]

Early life and education

Da Corte was born in Camden, New Jersey, in 1980. He spent his formative years growing up in Venezuela.[4] In 2001, he studied Film/Animation and Fine Arts at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and then went on to receive his BFA in Printmaking/Fine Arts, from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia in 2004. He graduated from Yale University with an MFA in 2010.[5][6]

Work

Since 2013, Alex Da Corte has mounted shows from New York commercial galleries like Luxembourg & Dayan to international museums like The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. In 2014, Da Corte had a solo exhibition at the White Cube Gallery in London titled "White Rain".[7]

In 2015, Da Corte's solo show Die Hexe at Luxembourg & Dayan Gallery (NYC) was reviewed by art critic Roberta Smith of The New York Times. In a piece on the exhibition she wrote of Da Corte's previous work, "last year's show dazzled at every turn, weaving confounding narratives about innocence and decadence, mass production and eccentricity..."[8]

In 2016, Da Corte's opus was the subject of an exhibition entitled Free Roses at Mass MOCA in North Adams, Massachusetts which is the largest of his career so far.[9][10]

In the arena of hip hop, Da Corte directed the 2013 video for the track "Hush BB" by the rapper Le1f.[11] He also contributed the cover art for the second studio album by the hip hop group Spank Rock 2013's "Everything Is Boring and Everyone Is a Fucking Liar".

In the recent past Da Corte has taken to taking on the persona of the rapper Eminem which was the crux of his solo exhibition "Bad Land" at the Josh Lilley gallery in London which ran from November 2017 until February 2018.[12][13]

Da Corte's work is included in the 2019 58th edition of the Venice Biennale "May You Live in Interesting Times" curated by Ralph Rugoff and appears in both main sections with 57 Varieties in the arsenale and The Decorated Shed in the giardini.[14][15]

In 2021 Da Corte was the recipient of the Metropolitan Museum of Art roof commission for which he created an adapted replica of an Alexander Calder mobile upon which is seated a bright blue facsimile representation of the ambulatory avian Mupppet personality Big Bird. The sculpture is inspired by the work of the Italian writer Italo Calvino (1923-1985) and named for his story As Long as the Sun Lasts.[16][17]

Collaborations

Throughout Da Corte's career, he has collaborated with other artists, including Borna Sammak, Sean Fitzgerald, Jayson Musson and Dev Hynes. Da Corte's collaborative installation, Easternsports[18] (2014), is two and a half hours of atmospheric video on four channels, and a disjointed essay-poem of tens of thousands of words running through the subtitles.[19] The work was created with Jayson Musson and scored by Dev Hynes. After the completion of Easternsports Da Corte and Hynes worked together to create a video for GAP's "Play Your Stripes" campaign.[20] Alex Da Corte's most recent collaboration opened on September 3, 2016 at the Herning Museum of Contemporary Art in Herning, Denmark. The exhibition titled, 50 Wigs showcases original sculptures by Da Corte alongside a collection of objects from Andy Warhol's personal estate. Working closely with the Andy Warhol Museum to bring the show to life, Da Corte "transforms Warhol's personal belongings to art objects"[21]

In 2017, Da Corte directed the music video for the musician St. Vincent's song "New York". In 2018, the duo reunited for a second pairing, whereby the artist/director employed the artist/musician in another video this time as part his exhibition "C-A-T Spells Murder" at the Karma gallery in New York City (February 18 – March 18, 2018); where in an 11-minute video Da Corte shows St. Vincent holding a one eyed feline while the performer makes a series of facial expressions ending in terror while this film looped was played within an instillation which also featured an eleven foot high sculpture of a cat.[22][23]

Selected exhibitions

Solo
  • The Death of All Things Beautiful, The University of The Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 2005
  • Welcome Your Sorrows, Black Floor Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 2005
  • Help Yourself to Roses, Space 1026, Philadelphia, PA, 2006
  • I Attach Myself to You, Stonefox Art Space, New York, NY, 2007
  • I Think About You All The Time, Parisian Laundry, Montreal, Canada, 2007
  • Casual Luxury, La Montagne Gallery, Boston, MA, 2009
  • Activity #91, Golden Age, Chicago, IL, 2009
  • The Kind of Dog that Keeps You Waiting, Yale Gallery, New Haven, CT, 2010
  • The Island Beautiful/Mortal Mirror" Bodega/Extra Extra, Philadelphia, PA, 2011
  • Night Chat, Galerie Olivier Robert, Paris, France, 2012
  • Candy Rain, Joe Sheftel, New York, NY, 2012
  • Magic Stick, Still House, New York, NY, 2012
  • Gentle Pain, Mallorca Landings, Mallorca, Spain, 2012
  • Dead Zone, Nudashank, Baltimore, MD, 2013
  • CAR WHORE, Wake, Detroit, MI, 2013
  • BACON BREAST, ARTSPEAK, Vancouver, Canada, 2013
  • Fun Sponge, ICA at MECA, Portland, ME, 2013
  • 1 O O O I S L A N D, Joe Sheftl Gallery, New York, NY, 2013
  • White Rain, White Cube, London, U.K., 2014
  • Delirium I, David Risley Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2014
  • A Night In Hell, Carl Koystál, Stockholm, Sweden, 2014
  • Easternsports, with Jayson Musson, ICA, Philadelphia, PA, 2014
  • Die Hexe, Luxembourg & Dayan, New York, NY, 2015
  • Devil Town, Gio Marconi, Milan, Italy, 2015
  • Le Miroir Vivant, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2015
  • A Season in He'll, Art + Practice, Los Angeles, CA, 2016
  • A Man Full of Trouble, Maccarone Gallery, New York, NY, 2016
  • Free Roses, Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA, 2017
  • 50 Wigs, Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Herning, Denmark, 2017
  • Slow Graffiti, Secession, Vienna, Austria, 2017
  • BAD LAND, Josh Lilley Gallery, London, U.K. 2018
  • C-A-T Spells Murder, Karma, New York, NY, 2018
  • THE SUPERMAN, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany, 2018
  • Marigolds, Karma, New York, NY, 2019
  • Prada Rong Zhai (2020)
  • As Long as the Sun Lasts, New York, NY 2021[24]
  • The Street Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
(2023)

Group
  • Red, Gallery One, The University of The Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 2003
  • Turning Pages, Whittier College, Whittier, CA, 2005
  • Nexus Selects, Nexus Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 2005
  • Faux Naturel, The Warehouse Gallery, Syracuse, NY, 2006
  • This Is This, ICA, Philadelphia, PA, 2008
  • L'Autre, Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 2008
  • 2000 Years of Sculpture, Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 2008
  • Love Explosion, Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 2008
  • I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl, Asia Song Society, New York, NY, 2008
  • Between Spaces, PS1 MoMA, New York, NY, 2009
  • Rich Text, Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 2009
  • Christmas in July, Yvon Lambert, New York, NY, 2010
  • Cellar Door: Front Room Series, Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis, MO, 2010
  • SubStainability, Texas State University Gallery, San Marcos, TX, 2011
  • ICA Open Video Call Exhibition, ICA, Philadelphia, PA, 2011
  • New Skin for the Old Ceremony, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, 2011
  • That's How We Escaped: Reflections on Warhol, ICA, Philadelphia, PA, 2011
  • The Unlimited Plan (with Kate Levant), Cleopatra's, Brooklyn, NY, 2011
  • Spirit of the Signal, Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, New York, NY, 2011
  • Re: Empire, TEAM Gallery, New York, N, 2011
  • BLEACH, Jolie Laide Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 2011
  • First Among Equals, ICA, Philadelphia, PA, 2012
  • Specifically Yours, Joe Sheftel Gallery, New York, NY, 2012
  • New Skin for the Old Ceremony, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Montreal, Canada, 2012
  • Painting Without Paint, David Risley Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2012
  • As Is Wet Hoagie, OKO Gallery, New York, NY, 2013
  • Body Without Organs With Sean Fitzgerald, Fjord, Philadelphia, PA, 2013
  • Cardboard Lover, American Contemporary, New York, NY, 2014
  • The New Beauty of Our Modern Life, Higher Pictures, New York, NY, 2014
  • Border Food, Loyal, New York, NY, 2014
  • Slip, Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, NY, 2014
  • Taut Eye Tau, Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, 2015
  • Bonsai #5, Maccarone, New York, NY, 2015
  • Illumination, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, 2016
  • The 5th of July, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA, 2016
  • Fire Under Snow, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark, 2016
  • Pièces-Meublés, Patrick Seguin, Paris, France, 2016
  • Wild Style: Exhibition of Figurative Art, Peres Projects, Berlin, Germany, 2016
  • Illumination, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark, 2016
  • Dreamlands: Immersive Film and Cinema Since 1905, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, 2017
  • Summer Show, Carl Kostyál, Stockholm, 2017
  • Cells, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY, 2017
  • Soft Focus, Reyes Projects, Birmingham, MI, 2018
  • Collections, Musée d'art contemporain, Lyon, France, 2018
  • Carnegie International, 57th Edition, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, 2018

References
  1. "Alex Da Corte: Harvest Moon". www.newmuseum.org. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
  2. "Artist Alex Da Corte Gets Spooky at Karma". Vogue. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
  3. "'Absurd', yet 'deadly serious': Alex Da Corte will create the Met's next rooftop installation". www.theartnewspaper.com. February 12, 2021. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
  4. "Alex Da Corte: Dancing Around Delusion". May 28, 2015.
  5. "Alex Da Corte". Frieze. Archived from the original on August 13, 2016. Retrieved August 2, 2016.
  6. "Alex Da Corte". Interview Magazine. March 23, 2010.
  7. Cube, White. "Alex Da Corte Inside the White Cube 2014 – White Cube".
  8. "Alex Da Corte: 'Die Hexe'". The New York Times. April 3, 2015.
  9. "Upcoming Events Alex Da CorteFree Roses". June 2015.
  10. "Alex Da Corte's 'Free Roses' Puts His Eccentricities on View". The New York Times. March 28, 2016.
  11. "Exclusive Video Premiere: 'Hush Bb,' Le1f". October 10, 2013.
  12. Eckardt, Stephanie. "An Eminem Impersonator Is Smoking Bongs on Loop at a Gallery in London". W Magazine. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
  13. "Josh Lilley". joshlilley.com. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
  14. "Touring the Venice Biennale, Part 2: The Giardini". May 8, 2019.
  15. "10 Artists at the Venice Biennale We Know & Love". May 7, 2019.
  16. "Alex da Corte: As Long as the Sun Lasts".
  17. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on July 7, 2021. Retrieved July 7, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  18. "Excerpt from Alex Da Corte and Jayson Musson's Easternsports, 2014".
  19. "Alex Da Corte and Jayson Musson – Reviews – Art in America". artinamericamagazine.com. February 19, 2015. Retrieved August 5, 2016.
  20. "The GAP: "Play Your Stripes" w/ Blood Orange (Dir. Alex DaCorte)". Vimeo. December 2014. Retrieved August 5, 2016.
  21. "Alex Da Corte – 50 wigs – HEART – Museum of Contemporary Art". heartmus.dk. Archived from the original on August 21, 2016. Retrieved September 19, 2016.
  22. Zara, Janelle (February 16, 2018). "Basking in the Day-Glo of St. Vincent and Alex Da Corte". The New York Times. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
  23. "Alex Da Corte: C-A-T Spells Murder". Karma. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
  24. "Alex Da Corte's 'As Long as the Sun Lasts' Will Be The Met's Roof Garden Commission 2021". ArtfixDaily. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
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