With a mixture of humour and seriousness, the works will confront you with familiar situations, everyday objects and characters from popular culture – as if you suddenly find yourself in a surreal scenario, confronted by Eminem, the Pink Panther or Popeye – iconic characters portrayed by the artist himself in disguise.
Alex Da Cortes’ works draw on American art and cultural tradition, freely mixing references from highbrow and lowbrow culture. His works combine popular culture and symbols of consumer society with questions about identity and self-perception, etc.
With a touch of existential satire, Da Corte uses poppy, playful, carefree elements to address the banalities and absurdities of life – always with an undertone of nostalgia and melancholy.
Alex Da Corte (b. 1980, Camden, NJ) is a Venezuelan American artist, known for his visually captivating and conceptually rich works. He often uses references from pop culture in immersive, all-encompassing, brightly-coloured installations. His recent exhibitions include Fresh Hell at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Japan (2023) and the retrospective Mr. Remember at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark (2022-23). Other highlights include participation in the Whitney Biennale (2022), the Roof Garden Commission at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (2021), and the Venice Biennale (2019). He has also had solo exhibitions at prominent museums such as Kölnischer Kunstverein, Secession in Vienna, and MASS MoCA.
The works in this exhibition have been loaned from the collection of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition is the result of several years of collaboration between Kunsten and Louisiana. Since 2020, the two museums have been exploring the potential of national museum communities on the basis of collection exchanges and joint projects. The aim is to create a broader platform for experiences of art in Denmark.
