Born in 1987 in Los Angeles, California, USA
Lives and works in Long Beach, California, USA
As a natural observer, Alex Gardner captures the nuances of relationships through luminous paintings. Through making connections, he creates dual narratives of optimism and paranoid delusion. The artist's vivid color fields are inhabited by faceless characters, unobscured by superficial features or societal pressures. Human in nature, Gardner’s figures exhibit intimately familiar behaviors: frozen in amusement, an intimate embrace, or caught in a moment of melancholy. Free of the obligations imposed by identity markers they become universal, activated by the lived experience of each onlooker. However, while we project ourselves onto them, they are not ours. The ambiguous backdrop of his canvases mirror the malleability of Gardner's pitch-black figures. Rather than imparting definitions, Gardner offers solace in an indefinite ecosystem polluted with information.
education
2011 BFA, California State University, Long Beach, CA
solo shows
2024
Psychic Stamina, Perrotin New York
2023
Good Luck, X Museum, Beijing, China
2022
Drawing No Conclusions, Mou Projects
2021
We All Exist Right Now, Long Beach Museum Of Art, Long Beach, CA
Happy To Be Here, Loyal Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
Free For All, König Galerie, Berlin, Germany
2020
Blues, The Hole, New York, NY
2019
Guest Room, SCAD Museum Of Art, Savannah, GA
Snooze Button, Mou Project, Hong Kong
Amnesia, Carl Kostyal Gallery, London, UK
2017
RomCom, The Hole, New York, NY
2016
Laugh Now Cry Now, New Image Art, Los Angeles, CA
2015
What is your reason for visiting?, The Dot Project, London, United Kingdom
group shows
2025
Femmes curated by Pharrell Williams, Perrotin Paris
2023
You Need A Mango To Give A Mango, New Image Art
Beneath The Surface, Lehmann Maupin, London, United Kingdom
2022
Psychic Distance: Powers of Observing Relationships, Loyal
New Construction, The Hole, Los Angeles, CA
2019
They Gaze, James Fuentes
2018
Body, Curtain, Advance, Loyal Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
public collections
- Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, USA
- Detroit Institute of Art, USA
- Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), USA
- Studio Museum in Harlem, USA
- X Museum, Beijing, China