Alex Prager

Alex Prager
Born November 1, 1979
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Nationality American
Known for Photography
Awards Emmy, London Photography Award, FOAM Paul Huf Award
Website
www.alexprager.com

Alex Prager (born November 1, 1979) is an American art photographer and filmmaker who lives and works in Los Angeles. Her photographs primarily use staged sets and models to create "film-like" images[1] that invite a myriad references, not only to the history of Hollywood and photography, but also the cinematic image in art contexts. The subjects of her works, exaggerated and costumed, some times "hyper-real"[2] speak to the ambiguity of seduction and spectacle.[3]

Work

Prager began her photography practice after viewing an exhibition of William Eggleston's at the Getty Museum in 1999-2000. As a self-taught artist, she was inspired by the way that Eggleston could "take what looked like a mundane, two-dimensional snapshot and make it feel completely alive and unique."[4] Her staged color photographs are often described as synthesizing the influences of Cindy Sherman, Philip-Lorca diCorcia and Douglas Sirk.[5]

In 2005, Prager created a group of works, "The Book of Disquiet", as an exhibition and joint publication with artist Mercedes Helnwein. She began to gain more attention with the following series "Polyester" in 2007, which focused more on Southern California's cinematic background with striking, uncanny portraits of various women and girls.[6] Her next series, titled "The Big Valley", shown in 2008 at Michael Hoppen Gallery in London and in 2009 at Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York, expanded upon her previous images and integrated references to disparate time periods. In 2010, along with the series "Week-End", Prager created her first short film, "Despair" which was conceived as a moving, full-sensory version of her photographic work[7] Set in 1960s Los Angeles, the four-minute film is inspired by the 1948 film The Red Shoes about a ballerina – played by actress Bryce Dallas Howard – whose obsession with dance conflicts with her need for love, ultimately leading to her suicide.[8] The film was included in Museum of Modern Art's exhibition "New Photography 2010.[9]

In 2012, Prager diverged into creating images that deal primarily with the themes of disaster and spacial turbulence with the series "Compulsion".[10] Prager's second short film "La Petite Mort" was made simultaneously and employed the narration of Gary Oldman and starring French actress Judith Godreche.

Prager's latest series, Face in the Crowd, debuted at Washington D.C.'s Corcoran Gallery of Art. Shot on a Los Angeles soundstage in early 2013, the large-scale photographs feature dense crowds in public spaces. The series also includes a 10-minute three-channel video installation[11] featuring Elizabeth Banks.[12] For the shoot, Prager personally selected and dressed friends, relatives and 150 extras, and used a Hollywood sound stage to represent places where people gather: city streets, a movie theater, a beach, an airport.[13] Described as portraying "in-between-ness, a nonspace through which we are obliged to pass",[3] this series reflects the complicated and contradictory emotions and disconnections associated with crowds.[14]

Monographs

Exhibitions

Photo from the series A face in the Crowd

Videos

Recognition

Prager has received several major awards for her work, including an Emmy Award for the New York Times-commissioned piece Touch of Evil, starring Jessica Chastain, George Clooney, Glenn Close, Kirsten Dunst, Rooney Mara, Brad Pitt, and others.[20]

Collections

Prager's work is widely collected and is included in the collections at the Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others.

Art market

Prager is currently represented by Lehmann Maupin Gallery in New York[21] and M+B Gallery in Los Angeles[22]

References

  1. ↑ "Photographer #10: Alex Prager". 500 Photographers. April 16, 2010. Retrieved November 30, 2013.
  2. ↑ Zafiris, Alex (January 10, 2014). "For Alex Prager, It's Lonely in a Crowd". T Magazine.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Hall, Emily (March 2014). "Alex Prager at Lehmann Maupin". Artforum Magazine: 289.
  4. ↑ Davidson, Barbara (August 8, 2012). "reFramed: In conversation with Alex Prager". The Los Angeles Times.
  5. ↑ Ken Johnson (March 19, 2010), Aipad Photography Show New York New York Times.
  6. ↑ Lindholm, Erin. "Alex Prager's Girls on Film". Art in America.
  7. ↑ "Bryce Dallas Howard in "Despair"". Nowness online. Retrieved June 10, 2010.
  8. ↑ Carol Vogel (July 29, 2010), ‘New Photography 2010’ Coming to MoMA New York Times.
  9. ↑ "New Photography 2010 Alex Prager". Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  10. ↑ Brown, Emma. "Alex Prager Predicts Disaster". Interview Magazine.
  11. ↑ Roberta Smith (February 20, 2014), Alex Prager: ‘Face in the Crowd’ New York Times.
  12. ↑ "Alex Prager: Face in the Crowd". Corcoran College of Art and Design. 2013-11-23. Retrieved 2014-07-16.
  13. ↑ Alex Zafiris (January 10, 2014), On View: For Alex Prager, It’s Lonely in a Crowd T: The New York Times Style Magazine.
  14. ↑ Kelsey, Coleen (January 2014). "Alex Prager: Crowdsourced". Interview Magazine.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Alex Prager". www.lehmannmaupin.com. November 30, 2013. Retrieved November 30, 2013.
  16. ↑ "Alex Prager Predicts Disaster". Interview Magazine. 2011. Retrieved November 30, 2013.
  17. ↑ "Exhibition: Alex Prager, Mise-en-scène". Savannah College of Art and Design. July 27, 2013. Retrieved July 27, 2013.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 "Staging Reality: Alex Prager’s Timeless Faces in the Crowd". Time Magazine. November 19, 2013. Retrieved November 30, 2013.
  19. ↑ "Alex Prager directs Touch of Evil". The New York Times (New York). Retrieved April 22, 2015.
  20. ↑ "We Won an Emmy — for Villainy!". New York Times. October 2, 2012. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  21. ↑ "Alex Prager". Lehmann Maupin. Retrieved 2014-07-16.
  22. ↑ "M+B". Mbart.com. Retrieved 2014-07-16.

External links