Using Walls, Floors, and Ceilings: Alex Israel

Alex Israel (b. 1982) was born, raised, and now lives and works in Los Angeles. Deeply entangled in his hometown, Israel explores how popular media, Hollywood, and the cult of celebrity are both central to Los Angeles, as well as an understanding of the American Dream. For this edition of Using Walls, Floors, and Ceilings, Israel will present Self Portrait (Mom), (2016) a newly commissioned painting in his ongoing Self-Portrait series. The artist’s profile, wearing Freeway sunglasses of his own design, brands his work across an ever-expanding variety of media: paintings, sculpture, installation, the online talk-show AS IT LAYS and the forthcoming feature-length teen coming-of-age movie: SPF-18.

Using Walls, Floors, and Ceilings is a series of artist commissions at the Jewish Museum. Initiated in 2013, artists from around the globe have been invited to create new art or adapt a work for placement in the entrance lobby. The project builds upon Using Walls, a 1970 exhibition of commissioned artworks installed both within and beyond the gallery space of the Museum’s Warburg Mansion.

#AlexIsrael

Using Walls, Floors, and Ceilings: Alex Israel is organized by Kelly Taxter, Associate Curator.

About Lobby Artist Commissions

Since 2013, artists from around the globe have been invited to create new art or adapt a work for placement in the entrance lobby. The project builds upon Using Walls, a 1970 exhibition of commissioned artworks installed both within and beyond the gallery space of the Museum’s Warburg Mansion. That series, curated by Susan Tumarkin Goodman, began with the premise that the wall is not just a surface on which to display a work of art, but can be a component of it. Among the participating artists were Sol LeWitt, Robert Ryman, Richard Tuttle, Mel Bochner, and Richard Artschwager.

This exhibition series is organized by Kelly Taxter, the Barnett and Annalee Newman Curator of Contemporary Art, The Jewish Museum.