Alex Prager

Alex Prager (born November 1, 1979) is an American art photographer and filmmaker who lives and works in Los Angeles. Her photographs primarily use staged sets and models to create "film-like" images[1]  that invite a myriad references, not only to the history of Hollywood and photography, but also the cinematic image in art contexts. The subjects of her works, exaggerated and costumed, some times "hyper-real"[2]  speak to the ambiguity of seduction and spectacle.[3]



Contents
[hide]  *1 Work  ==Work[ edit] == Prager began her photography practice after viewing an exhibition of William Eggleston's at the Getty Museum in 1999-2000. As a self-taught artist, she was inspired by the way that Eggleston could "take what looked like a mundane, two-dimensional snapshot and make it feel completely alive and unique."[4]
 * 2 Monographs
 * 3 Exhibitions
 * 4 Videos
 * 5 Art market
 * 6 External links
 * 7 References

In 2005, Prager created a group of works, "The Book of Disquiet", as an exhibition and joint publication with artist Mercedes Helnwein. She began to gain more attention with the following series "Polyester" in 2007, which focused more on Southern California's cinematic background with striking, uncanny portraits of various women and girls.[5]  Her next series, titled "The Big Valley", shown in 2008 at Michael Hoppen Gallery in London and in 2009 at Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York, expanded upon her previous images and integrated references to disparate time periods. In 2010, along with the series "Week-End", Prager created her first short film, "Despair" which was conceived as a moving, full-sensory version of her photographic work[6]  and was included in Museum of Modern Art's exhibition "New Photography 2010.[7]

In 2012, she diverged into creating images that deal primarily with the themes of disaster and spacial turbulence with the series "Compulsion".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-8" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[8]  Prager's second short film "La Petite Mort" was made simultaneously and employed the narration of Gary Oldman and starring French actressJudith Godreche.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:20.363636016845703px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13.63636302947998px;">Her latest series, Face in the Crowd, debuted at Washington D.C.'s Corcoran Gallery of Art. Shot on a Los Angeles soundstage in early 2013, the large-scale photographs feature dense crowds in public spaces and includes a short film featuring Elizabeth Banks.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[9]  Described as portraying "in-between-ness, a nonspace through which we are obliged to pass",<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Hall_289_3-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[3]  this series reflects the complicated and contradictory emotions and disconnections associated with crowds.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-10" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[10] ==Monographs<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == ==Exhibitions<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == Photo from the series A face in the Crowd*2010: New Photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-lehmannmaupin_11-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[11] ==Videos<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == ==Art market<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:20.363636016845703px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13.63636302947998px;">Prager is currently represented by Lehmann Maupin Gallery in New York<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-16" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[16]  and M+B Gallery in Los Angeles<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-17" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[17]  She has received several major awards for her work, including an Emmy for the New York Times commissioned piece Touch of Evil.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-18" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[18]  She is widely collected and is included in the collections at the Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others.
 * “Face in the Crowd ”, Corcoran (2013) (ISBN 0615901743)
 * “Compulsion ”, Michael Hoppen Gallery (2012) (ISBN 0615613055)
 * "The Big Valley / Week-end ", M+B and Yancey Richardson Gallery (2010) (ISBN 0615339182)
 * 2012: Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-lehmannmaupin_11-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[11]
 * 2012: Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-12" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[12]
 * 2013: "Mise-en-scène" Savannah College of Art and Design.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-savannah_13-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[13]
 * 2013: Face in the Crowd Corcoran Gallery of Art<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-timemagazine_14-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[14]
 * 2010: Despair
 * 2011: Touch of Evil, New York Times<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-touchevil_15-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[15]
 * 2012: La Petite Mort
 * 2012: Sunday
 * 2013: Face in the Crowd<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-timemagazine_14-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[14]