Alex Da Corte
The Bigg Little Falls, 2021neon, vinyl sliding, laminate, plywood, house paint, velvet, foam, hardware TBV182,9 x 182,9 x 16,5 cm
About the work
Alex Da Corte is widely recognized as a rising art star.
He is a conceptual artist working with painting, sculpture, performance, installation, and video.
His works are distinctly rooted in traditional American arts and culture. He seems to mix Pop art and its investigation of the surfaces of popular culture as practiced by Warhol and Lichtenstein with his own satirical existentialism.
The works often possess a duality of remarkable gloom and sadness and at the same time something very effortless, playful and light.
He often appears in disguise in his films, taking on iconic figures such as Popeye or the Statue of Liberty.
His works connect our sense of self, of an identity, to our consumer culture, from the films we watch, to the objects we buy, give and throw away. In Da Corte's world, we are all kind of freaks, a sum of parts pieced together by what we surround ourselves with and consume.
This acquisition is one of his neon window wall pieces, presenting a tableau in its frame. Da Corte plays cartoonishly with sculpture, cheerful colors and light in this immersive installation. He employs the use of neon windows to get his message across.
Da Corte's windows reference the broken windows theory stating that visible signs of crime, antisocial behavior and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further crime and disorder and vandalism.
Alex Da Corte
° 1980, Camden, New Jersey. Lives and works in Philadelphia, USA.
He obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, and a Master of Fine Arts from the Yale University School of Art.
Da Corte has exhibited internationally including: As Long as the Sun Lasts: a site-specific sculpture made for the Met’s prestigious annual Roof Garden Commission, New York (2021), wLa Biennale di Venezia 2019, the international exhibition May You Live in Interesting Times ; the 57th Carnegie International in Pittsburgh.
Recent solo exhibitions: Louisiana Museum, Denmark, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Köln, Germany (2018). Other recent solo exhibitions include Karma, New York (2018); Secession, Vienna, Austria; Art + Practice, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2016); MASS MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts (2016); Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2015); and Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2014), together with Jayson Musson).
Meet the Artist
Portfolio
