Alex Da Corte (born 1980) is an American

conceptual artist Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called instal ...

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. He has shown internationally at Bodega, Gió Marconi, Josh Lilley Gallery, Maccarone,

Herning Museum of Contemporary Art Heart: Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, formerly Herning Kunstmuseum, was founded in Herning, Denmark, in 1976. It opened in 1977 in Angligården, an old shirt factory designed by C. F. Møller. In 2009, it reopened in new premises designed by ...

Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) is a museum in a converted Arnold Print Works factory building complex located in North Adams, Massachusetts. It is one of the largest centers for contemporary visual art and performing ar ...

, 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 Jayson Scott Musson is an artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He was born in Bronx, NY. Early life In an interview in Nat. Brut magazine, Musson said that he grew up in Spring Valley, New York, about 25 minutes from New York City. He ...

Dev Hynes Devonté Hynes (born David Joseph Michael Hynes, 23 December 1985), also known as Blood Orange and formerly Lightspeed Champion, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and director based in New York City. From 2004 to 2006, Hynes was ...

Sam Mckinniss Sam McKinniss (born 1985) is an American abstract and figurative postmodern painter based in Brooklyn. Education Sam McKinniss was born in Minnesota and grew up in Connecticut. He graduated from the Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland ...

, and Annie Clark. In February 2021, his works were selected for inclusion in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's roof garden collection.

Early life and education

Da Corte was born in

Camden, New Jersey Camden is a city in and the county seat of Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Camden is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan area and is located directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the 2020 ...

, in 1980. He spent his formative years growing up in

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. In 2001, he studied Film/Animation and Fine Arts at the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...

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 Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

with an MFA in 2010.

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 The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is an art museum located on the shore of the Øresund Sound in Humlebæk, north of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is the most visited art museum in Denmark, and has an extensive permanent collection of modern and cont ...

in Denmark. In 2014, Da Corte had a solo exhibition at the

White Cube Gallery A white cube gallery is a gallery style that is square or rectangular shape, has unadorned white walls and a light source usually in the ceiling. It typically has hardwood or polished concrete floors. In the early twentieth century art became m ...

in London titled "White Rain". In 2015, Da Corte's solo show ''Die Hexe'' at Luxembourg & Dayan Gallery (NYC) was reviewed by art critic

Roberta Smith Roberta Smith (born 1948) is co-chief art critic of ''The New York Times'' and a lecturer on contemporary art. She is the first woman to hold that position. Early life Born in 1948 in New York City and raised in Lawrence, Kansas. Smith studied at ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. 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..." In 2016, Da Corte's opus was the subject of an exhibition entitled ''Free Roses'' at

Mass MOCA The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) is a museum in a converted Arnold Print Works factory building complex located in North Adams, Massachusetts. It is one of the largest centers for contemporary visual art and performing ar ...

North Adams, Massachusetts North Adams is a city in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its population was 12,961 as of the 2020 census. Best known as the ...

which is the largest of his career so far. In the arena of hip hop, Da Corte directed the 2013 video for the track "Hush BB" by the rapper

Le1f Khalif Diouf, known by his stage name Le1f (), is an American rapper and producer. He also founded the record label Camp & Street, with Boody, DonChristian, and Chaz Requina. As a gay rapper he's garnered attention for his musical and perform ...

. He also contributed the cover art for the second studio album by the hip hop group

Spank Rock Naeem Juwan, better known by his stage name Spank Rock, is an American rapper and songwriter from Baltimore. He rose to fame with his 2006 album ''YoYoYoYoYo'', which was produced by former group member Alex Epton (XXXChange). A harbinger of po ...

2013's "

Everything Is Boring and Everyone Is a Fucking Liar ''Everything Is Boring and Everyone Is a Fucking Liar'' is the second studio album by Spank Rock. It was released through Bad Blood Records on September 27, 2011. It peaked at number 14 on the ''Billboard'' Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart. Crit ...

". In the recent past Da Corte has taken to taking on the persona of the rapper

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...

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. Da Corte's work is included in the 2019 58th edition of the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

"May You Live in Interesting Times" curated by

Ralph Rugoff Ralph Rugoff (born 12 January 1957) is an American-born curator, the director of London's Hayward Gallery since 2006, and the curator of the Venice Biennale in 2019. Rugoff was born in New York City, the son of a film distributor father and a psy ...

and appears in both main sections with ''57 Varieties'' in the arsenale and ''The Decorated Shed'' in the giardini. In 2021 Da Corte was the recipient of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

roof commission for which he created an adapted replica of an

Alexander Calder Alexander Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, his static "stabiles", and his ...

mobile upon which is seated a bright blue facsimile representation of the ambulatory avian Mupppet personality

Big Bird Big Bird is a Muppet character designed by Jim Henson and built by Kermit Love for the long-running children's television show ''Sesame Street''. An eight-foot two-inch (249 cm) tall bright yellow anthropomorphic bird, he can roller skat ...

. The sculpture is inspired by the work of the Italian writer

Italo Calvino Italo Calvino (, also , ;. RAI (circa 1970), retrieved 25 October 2012. 15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian writer and journalist. His best known works include the ''Our Ancestors'' trilogy (1952–1959), the '' Cosmicomi ...

(1923-1985) and named for his story ''As Long as the Sun Lasts''.

Collaborations

Throughout Da Corte's career, he has collaborated with other artists, including Borna Sammak, Sean Fitzgerald,

and

. Da Corte's collaborative installation, ''Easternsports'' (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. 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. Alex Da Corte's most recent collaboration opened on September 3, 2016 at the

in Herning, Denmark. The exhibition titled, ''50 Wigs'' showcases original sculptures by Da Corte alongside a collection of objects from

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

's personal estate. Working closely with the

Andy Warhol Museum The Andy Warhol Museum is located on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is the largest museum in North America dedicated to a single artist. The museum holds an extensive permanent collection of art and archive ...

to bring the show to life, Da Corte "transforms Warhol's personal belongings to art objects" In 2017, Da Corte directed the music video for the musician

St. Vincent Saint Vincent may refer to: People Saints * Vincent of Saragossa (died 304), a.k.a. Vincent the Deacon, deacon and martyr * Saint Vincenca, 3rd century Roman martyress, whose relics are in Blato, Croatia * Vincent, Orontius, and Victor (died 305) ...

's song "

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

". 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.

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 Hel''l, 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

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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Da Corte, Alex Living people 1980 births 21st-century American artists American conceptual artists American music video directors Artists from Philadelphia People from Camden, New Jersey School of Visual Arts alumni University of the Arts (Philadelphia) alumni Yale School of Art alumni