Robert Berman Gallery, Santa Monica Acquired from the above by the present owner, California
Literature
Prager, Silver Lake Drive, p. 19
Catalogue Essay
Alex Prager Born 1979 Los Angeles
Selected museum exhibitions: Foam Fotografiemuseum, Amsterdam (2019); Des Moines Art Center, Iowa (2017); St. Louis Art Museum (2015); National Gallery of Art, Melbourne, Australia (2014); Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (2013); SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah (2013) Selected honors: Emmy Award (2012); Foam Paul Huf Award (2012); International Photography Award (2009); Lucie Award (2009); London Photographic Award (2006) Selected public collections: The Whitney Museum of American Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Museum of Modern Art; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Kunsthaus (The Museum for Modern Art), Zurich; Cincinnati Art Museum; Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, Australia; Fondation Carmignac Gestion, Paris
Alex Prager, a self-taught photographer, filmmaker, and Los Angeles native engages and reveals the carefully constructed reality of her hometown, and its inhabitants, in her early Polyester series. Unwrinkled women in candy colored vintage wardrobes, glamorously coiffed with lush false lashes and blank stares are set against vibrant blue skies, swirling seas, and dramatically lit rooms. Prager’s scenes are compellingly familiar, as if the artist has caught our star in between takes in a classic 1960s film; her camera cracks the illusion, and hints at the unease and emotion percolating below the gloss.
Influenced by pulp fiction and cinematic tropes, self-taught photographer and film-maker Alex Prager creates striking, sometimes unnerving images that are filled with a dynamic cast of characters. The hyperreal worlds she creates are packed with human melodrama, like the retro 'damsel in distress' character that regularly makes appearances in Prager's brightly colored and dramatically lit scenes.
With influences ranging from David Lynch, Alfred Hitchcock, William Eggleston, Cindy Sherman, and Gregory Crewdson, Prager references the vivid aesthetics of mid-twentieth century American cinema and photography. Pairing photographs alongside her films as part of her practice, Prager presents an eerie, alternative world where more questions are asked than answered.