Alex Prager
Alex Prager, 2023.
Born1979 (age 44–45)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Known forPhotography, Filmmaking
Awards
Websitewww.alexprager.com

Alex Prager (born 1979)[1] is an American artist and filmmaker, based in Los Angeles. She makes staged color photographs.[2]

Early life

Prager was born in Los Feliz, Los Angeles. She dropped out of school at sixteen.[3]

Career

She took up photography after viewing an exhibition of William Eggleston's at the Getty Museum when she was age 21.[3][4] She is self-taught.[3]

In 2005, Prager created a group of works, The Book of Disquiet, as an exhibition and joint publication with artist Mercedes Helnwein. She exhibited Polyester in 2007, which focused on what is now described as her signature cinematic styled portraits set in Los Angeles. Her next series, The Big Valley, was shown in 2008. In 2010 Prager exhibited Week-End as well as debuted her first short film, Despair. Despair was conceived in London during The Big Valley exhibition, where viewers were inquiring what happened before and after to the subjects in her photographic work. The film starring Bryce Dallas Howard was a full-sensory version of Prager's photographs in motion, showing the before, now and after of one of her images. Her intention was to create pure, cinematic melodrama through the use of an array of artistic mediums—imagery, motion, color, sculpture, painting and sound.[5] Prager's Despair was included in the Museum of Modern Art's exhibition New Photography 2010.[6]

In 2011 Kathy Ryan, director of photography for The New York Times Magazine commissioned Prager to shoot 12, 1 minute films with some film actors from that year, inspired by "cinematic villainy". Prager won a News and Documentary Emmy Award for New Approaches to News & Documentary Programming: Arts, Lifestyle & Culture for her Touch of Evil short films.[7]

In 2012, Prager addressed themes of disaster and spatial turbulence with the series Compulsion.[8] Her short film La Petite Mort starring French actress Judith Godreche with narration from Gary Oldman was shown alongside the body of work. The film was a "contemplation on death" and "a way for [her] to deal with the hopelessness [she] was feeling about the world. Creating a parallel universe where tragedies happen but with a sense of lightness as well."[9]

Prager's series, Face in the Crowd, debuted at Washington D.C.'s Corcoran Gallery of Art in 2013.[10]

She was commissioned by the Paris Opera in 2015 to create a film for 3e Scène. The film, La Grande Sortie, explores the tension between a performer's experience on stage and the audience watching. It stars Émilie Cozette and includes Karl Paquette dancing to an adapted score by Nigel Godrich. The film was produced by Jeremy Dawson. La Grande Sortie premiered at 3e Scène on September 15, 2015[11] and showed elsewhere.[12]

In 2019, Prager exhibited her most autobiographical body of work to date, which included photographs and a new film, Play the Wind.[3] Part One: The Mountain was exhibited in January 2022.[13]

Reception

Prager's staged color photographs are described by Ken Johnson as being influenced by Cindy Sherman, Philip-Lorca diCorcia and Douglas Sirk.[2]

MoMA curator Roxana Marcoci has described her work as "intentionally loaded", saying "it reminds me of silent movies— there is something pregnant, about to happen, a mix of desire and angst."[14]

Michael Govan, the director of Los Angeles County Museum of Art has said that

Prager's photographic and filmic compositions, like Eggleston's photographs, Alfred Hitchcock's films, and Edward Hopper's paintings, reveal the extraordinary lurking within the ordinary. Wreaking havoc with our involuntary voyeurism and our tendency to leap to conclusions about people's characters based on the merest details of their appearances, Prager cues our own fantasies by representing her own.[15]

Publications

  • Polyester, Alex Prager Studio. 2007. ASIN B001IYHQAE.
  • The Big Valley / Week-end, M+B and Yancey Richardson Gallery. 2010. ISBN 0615339182.
  • Compulsion, Michael Hoppen Gallery. 2012. ISBN 0615613055.
  • Face in the Crowd, Corcoran. 2013. ISBN 0615901743.
  • La Grande Sortie, Lehmann Maupin. 2016. ISBN 9780692763025.
  • Alex Prager: Silver Lake Drive, Thames & Hudson. 2018. ISBN 0500544972.
  • Play the Wind Catalog, Lehmann Maupin & Alex Prager Studio. 2019.
  • Farewell, Work Holiday Parties Brochure, Los Angeles County Museum of Art & Alex Prager Studio. 2020.
  • Alex Prager 2022 Catalog, Alex Prager Studio. 2022. ISBN 9798218106584.

Films

  • Despair (2010)[16]
  • Touch of Evil (2011)[17]
  • La Petite Mort (2012)[18]
  • Sunday (2012) – for W Magazine[19]
  • Face in the Crowd (2013)[20]
  • La Grande Sortie (2015)[12]
  • Uncanny Valley (2018)[21]
  • Play the Wind (2019)[22]
  • Part One: The Mountain Interviews (2021)[23]
  • Run (2022)[24]

Solo Exhibitions

Group Exhibitions

Awards

References

  1. ↑ "Photographer Alex Prager's best shot". The Guardian. 1 July 2010. Retrieved 2022-11-06.
  2. 1 2 Johnson, Ken (March 19, 2010). "Aipad Photography Show New York". The New York Times.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Alex Prager's L.A. Dreaming". The New Yorker. 29 August 2019. Retrieved 2022-11-06.
  4. ↑ Davidson, Barbara (August 8, 2012). "reFramed: In conversation with Alex Prager". Los Angeles Times.
  5. ↑ "Bryce Dallas Howard in "Despair"". Nowness online. Archived from the original on 2010-08-21. Retrieved June 10, 2010.
  6. 1 2 "New Photography 2010 Alex Prager". Museum of Modern Art. Archived from the original on 2014-07-24. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  7. 1 2 "We Won an Emmy – for Villainy!". The New York Times. October 2, 2012. Archived from the original on July 17, 2014. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  8. ↑ "Stan Douglas: Midcentury Studio; Alex Prager: Compulsion – review". The Guardian. 21 April 2012. Retrieved 2022-11-06.
  9. ↑ "Alex Prager: La Petite Mort". www.nowness.com.
  10. 1 2 "Face in the Crowd - Alex Prager - Exhibitions - Lehmann Maupin". www.lehmannmaupin.com.
  11. ↑ "La grande sortie - Alex Prager". Opéra national de Paris. Archived from the original on 2017-03-19. Retrieved 2018-10-24.
  12. 1 2 Wilkinson, Isabel (September 8, 2016). "An Artist's Haunting Fantasy of the Paris Opera Ballet". The New York Times Style Magazine. ISSN 0362-4331.
  13. ↑ Stone, Mee-Lai (26 January 2022). "Falling for it: Alex Prager's flights of fancy – in pictures". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2022-11-06.
  14. ↑ "Alex Prager". M+B.
  15. ↑ "Michael Govan - Silver Lake Drive, 2018". Alex Prager Studio.
  16. ↑ O'Neill, Claire (August 26, 2010). "Out With The Old And In With The Old-Inspired: Fresh Photos At MoMA". NPR. Retrieved 2023-11-14.
  17. ↑ "Alex Prager directs Touch of Evil". The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
  18. ↑ Mansfield, Michael (2018). "Pretend to Pretend in the Art of Appearances". Alex Prager: Silver Lake Drive. Chronicle Books. pp. 146–157. ISBN 9781452171579.
  19. 1 2 "Staging Reality: Alex Prager's Timeless Faces in the Crowd". Time. November 19, 2013. Archived from the original on 2013-11-29. Retrieved November 30, 2013.
  20. ↑ Boyle, Katherine (November 22, 2013). "At Corcoran, Alex Prager's color photographs of crowds depict detachment in togetherness". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2023-12-01.
  21. ↑ "Cate Blanchett Stars in "Uncanny Valley" By Alex Prager". W. Archived from the original on 6 November 2018. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
  22. ↑ Hagberg, Eva (9 September 2019). "Alex Prager takes us on a dystopian ride through her native Los Angeles". wallpaper.com. Retrieved 2022-11-06.
  23. ↑ Solomon, Tessa (2022-01-21). "In a New Portrait Series, Alex Prager Takes Her Camera to the Mountains". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  24. ↑ Williams, Megan (2023-01-26). "Photographer Alex Prager has one word: run!". Creative Review. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  25. ↑ "Alex Prager POLYESTER". robertbermangallery.com. 2007. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  26. ↑ "Alex Prager: The Big Valley at Michael Hoppen Gallery, London". mutualart.com. 2008-04-21. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  27. ↑ "Alex Prager – The Big Valley". yanceyrichardson.com. 2009. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  28. ↑ "Alex Prager – Week-End". yanceyrichardson.com. 2010. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  29. ↑ "Alex Prager". www.lehmannmaupin.com. November 30, 2013. Archived from the original on 2013-11-18. Retrieved November 30, 2013.
  30. ↑ "Exhibition: Alex Prager, Mise-en-scène". Savannah College of Art and Design. July 27, 2013. Archived from the original on 2013-08-17. Retrieved July 27, 2013.
  31. ↑ "The Arts Club - Exhibitioninner". www.theartsclub.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2015-10-04. Retrieved 2018-10-24.
  32. ↑ "Alex Prager - Overview". mbart.com. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  33. ↑ "Alex Prager: Face in the Crowd". slam.org. 2015. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  34. ↑ "Alex Prager's Hollywood: glamour, menace and heroines dying horrible deaths". The Guardian. 20 November 2014. Retrieved 2022-11-06.
  35. ↑ "Istanbul '74 | Arts & Culture Platform". Archived from the original on 2015-09-10. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  36. ↑ "Alex Prager – La Grande Sortie". lehmannmaupin.com. 2016. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  37. ↑ "Tish Murtha/Alex Prager review – a Hitchcockian shock of grit and glitz". The Guardian. 14 June 2018. Retrieved 2022-11-06.
  38. ↑ "MBAL - Alex Prager". Musée des beaux-arts du Locle. Archived from the original on 6 November 2018. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
  39. ↑ "Alex Prager - Silver Lake Drive | Past exhibition". Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam.
  40. ↑ "Alex Prager Silver Lake Drive". fondazionesozzani.org. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  41. ↑ "Våra utställningar - upplev fotokonst i världsklass". Fotografiska Stockholm.
  42. ↑ "Alex Prager – Play the Wind". lehmannmaupin.com. 2019. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  43. ↑ "Tipsy co-workers, ugly sweaters: The all-too-real office holiday party at LACMA". Los Angeles Times. 21 November 2020. Retrieved 2022-11-08.
  44. ↑ Almino, Elisa Wouk (9 December 2020). "A Goodbye to the Uncomfortable Holiday Work Party". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2022-11-08.
  45. ↑ "Alex Prager – Part One: The Mountain". lehmannmaupin.com. 2022. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  46. ↑ "Artist Photographer Alex Prager on Solo Exhibition at Seoul's Lotte Museum of Art". prestigeonline.com. 2022-03-22. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  47. ↑ "Alex Prager – Part Two: Run". lehmannmaupin.com. 2023. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  48. ↑ "No fashion, please!". Kunsthalle Wien. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  49. ↑ "Another story". Moderna Museet i Stockholm. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  50. ↑ "The Hole Contemporary art gallery New York and Los Angeles".
  51. ↑ "At the Window: The Photographer's View (The J. Paul Getty Museum Collection)".
  52. ↑ "Skirball Cultural Center presents Light & Noir: Exiles and Émigrés in Hollywood, 1933–1950". 4 February 2015. Archived from the original on 2016-04-24. Retrieved 2018-10-24.
  53. ↑ "Open Rhapsody A Journey Into Photography And Video Collections". archdaily.com. 2015. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  54. ↑ "Telling Tales: Contemporary Narrative Photography". 19 September 2016.
  55. ↑ "In Production: Art and the Studio System".
  56. ↑ "Justin Adian, Ana Bidart, Martí Cormand, Charles Hascoët, Ted Lawson, Stefana McClure, Sean Micka, Emily Mullin, Christina Nicodema, Alex Prager, Gabriel Rico, Paul Anthony Smith, Devin Troy Strother - Exhibitions - Bienvenu Steinberg & J".
  57. ↑ "Terminal -".
  58. ↑ "Oil – Beauty and Horror in the Petrol Age". Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  59. ↑ Simmons, William J. (2022). "Alex Prager". 12th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  60. ↑ "Freedom of Movement: Contemporary Art and Design from the NGV Collection | NGV". www.ngv.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 2024-01-10.
  61. ↑ "Killing TV | Tai Kwun". www.taikwun.hk. Retrieved 2024-01-10.
  62. ↑ "Photography: Real and Imagined | NGV". www.ngv.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 2024-01-10.
  63. ↑ "Alex Prager - Silver Lake Drive". Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam. Retrieved 2020-05-14.
  64. ↑ "Alex Prager wins Foam Paul Huf Award 2012". GUP Magazine. Retrieved 2020-05-14.
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