The SCAD Museum of Art presents
“Guest Room,” the first museum exhibition in the U.S. by artist Alex Gardner.
On until July 13 2019
In recent years, Gardner has gained widespread attention for his bold painting style. This exhibition presents a selection of Gardner’s most recent work, along with new pieces commissioned for SCAD deFINE ART.
Gardner likens…”Guest Room…to a portal or, in Gardner’s words, a “hotel room you are opening, a vignette of an interpersonal interaction, a private moment you are glimpsing.”
His acknowledgment of the spectator is a critical point of the show. It opens questions about the negotiation between the strange and the familiar, and about the shared feelings within intimacy and hosting. It also suggests an interesting relationship, even an interchangeability, between figure and space.
“Guest Room” offers a generous introduction to Gardner’s lexicon, and an opportunity for the audience to encounter a unique, expressive painting style. In a time where we are constantly reminded about our differences, Gardner’s ability to construct narratives outside the constricting limits of identity inspires broader forms of perception of what is otherwise rigid and unmovable.
The art of Alex Gardner is ‘simply radical’. Mundane, casual and ‘conversational’, they are human based with little or no context, yet they are dense with intertextuality. The viewer glimpses a little and is then propelled to expand and contemplate based on their own experiences of life taken holistically. Life that includes the every-day but also cultural and social history. The titles are masterful and engage the viewer accordingly. Wow!
