Alex Da Corte

Alex Da Corte (born 1980) is an American conceptual artist that 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] He has shown internationally at Bodega, 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]

Early life and education

Da Corte was born in Camden, New Jersey, in 1980. He spent his formative years growing up in Venezuela.^[3] In 2001, he studied Film/Animation and Fine Arts at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, New York 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.^[4][5]

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".^[6]

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...”^[7]

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.^[8][9]

In the arena of hip hop, Da Corte directed the 2013 video for the track "Hush BB" by the rapper Le1f.^[10] 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" .

Collaborations

Throughout Da Corte's career, he has collaborated with a number of contemporary artists including Borna Sammak, Sean Fitzgerald, Jayson Musson and Dev Hynes. Da Corte's collaborative installation, Easternsports^[11] (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.^[12] 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.^[13] 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"^[14]

Halt Action Group

In December 2016, Da Corte wrote a comment on a post made by the Halt Action Group Instagram page requesting that Ivanka Trump remove his artwork from her home.^[15]

Exhbitions

Selected solo exhibitions

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

Selected group shows

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

References