Alexi Worth (born 1964, New York, NY) is a painter, curator, art critic, and writer who is known for his conceptually rich and visually graphic works that address modern life and artmaking. He is currently represented by DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY.[1]
Biography
Alexi was born on May 13, 1964, in New York City to parents Robert and Blaikie Forsyth Worth. His mother worked as a social worker, and his father founded a college textbook publishing company.[2]
Worth attended the Yale School of Art, earning a BA in 1986. After attending Maine's Skowhegan School of Art in 1989, he received his MFA from the School of Fine Art at Boston University in 1993.[1]
In 1997 Worth married architect Erika Belsey, who also attended Yale.[2] They currently live in Brooklyn with their two sons.[1]
Painting
Worth is preoccupied with the tension between painting and photography. From his artist's statement: "Twenty years ago, we thought photography was already ubiquitous. But in fact, we’re living through a new immersion, akin to the first one of the 1850s. For painting, what does this new immersion mean? More reasons for pessimism, of course. More reasons to indulge our favorite fatalist fantasy, that we are living in painting’s dusk, a last twilit hour."[3]
His paintings deal with art historical questions about viewpoint and representation.[4] They feature symbolically charged subject matter such as hands, apples, shadows, and cameras. His scenes are frequently blocked by a foregrounded object so that realistically rendered imagery is simplified into abstract, geometric compositions.[5]Roberta Smith of The New York Times describes this effect: "The quirky realism, deliberate surfaces and modulated colors ... indicate an attention to ultra-conscious abstract painting."[6]
His stylized figures have been described as reminiscent of Pixar or claymation.[6] The formal arrangements of body parts often create ambiguous interpersonal relationships between the characters in his paintings.[7]
Recently, he has been painting with acrylic on nylon mesh; the unique surface has an odd depth and mimics the halftone of print media.[8]
Some of his new work deals with the unrest in the Middle East and the globalization of media scrutiny.[8]
A reviewer in The New Yorker described his paintings thus: “We’re blocked from seeing or interpreting at every turn, but the effect is engaging rather than frustrating."[9]
Jack Bankowsky of Artforum chose Worth for the "Best of 2011," saying, "His subtle play of shadow and substance, of represented image and abstract invention, makes one's head turn circles around how a given picture was made- and what it means to make one."[10]
In The New York Times, Ken Johnson has said: "Painted with sensuous neatness in a nicely simplifying representational style, Alexi Worth's pictures present curious visual puzzles slyly charged with sexual undercurrents. ... It's hard to think of another painter these days who has such infectious fun with the philosophical analysis of modern painting."[11]
In an otherwise positive review of Worth's solo show "Couples," Roberta Smith noted that some of his paintings were "a little too cutely Disney."[6]
He is consistently praised for his technical ability and "academic finesse."[12]
Teaching
Worth has been a senior critic at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Fine Arts since 2001.[13] In 2005 he participated in the Elizabeth Murray critics panel at Museum of Modern Art.[14] He taught at Yale College in Spring 1996 and University of New Hampshire from 1993 to 1995.[1]
Writing
Worth does freelance writing for publications including The New Yorker, Artforum, T magazine, Art in America, ARTnews, and Slate.
Recently he has written catalog texts for artists such as Martha Armstrong, Carroll Dunham, David Humphrey, James Hyde, Susan Jennings, Jackie Saccoccio, George Nick, Jim Nutt, and Philip Pearlstein.[15]
“Self-Made Men,” DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY April 2001
“The Figure: Another Side of Modernism,” (advisor) Newhouse Center, Staten Island, NY, 2000
"Social Life,” Clark Gallery, Lincoln MA, October 1995
Selected exhibitions
2013
"Alexi Worth: States," May 2 – June 15, 2013, DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY "Alexi Worth: States"
2012
“New Prints/Summer 2012,” Selected by Shahzia Sikander, May 24 – July 27, 2012, International Print Center New York, New York, NY
“Open Windows: Keltie Ferris, Jackie Saccoccio, Billy Sullivan, and Alexi Worth,” January 14 – April 8, 2012, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
2011
“Alexi Worth: Show of Hands,” October 13 – November 12, 2011, DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY "Alexi Worth: Show of Hands"
"Free Range – Painting and the University of Pennsylvania,” January 24 – February 18, 2011, Morgan Gallery, University of Pennsylvania, PA
2010
"Between Picture and Viewer" November 23 – December 22, 2010, Visual Arts Gallery, New
York, NY
“Private Futures,” December 9 – January 29, 2010, Mark Jancou, New York, NY
“In a Violet Distance,” October 29 – December 4, 2010, Zurcher Studio, New York, NY
"A Contemporary View of Women Reading," February 10 – April 17, 2010, The Forbes Galleries,
New York, NY
2009
"Talk Dirty To Me," February 26-March 28, 2009, Larissa Goldston Gallery, New York, NY
2008
“Eye to Eye,” November 13, 2008 – January 3, 2009, DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY
“Perverted by Theatre,” curated by Franklin Evans and Paul David Young, October 22 –December 6, ApexArt, New York, NY
2007
"International Exhibition of Visual Arts," American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
"Figure It! The Human Factor In Contemporary Art," April 14-June 24, 2007, The Clay Center, Charleston, WV
^Elizabeth Murray, Alexi Worth, Katy Siegel, Joan Simon, Carter Radcliff, Robert Storr (Nov 28, 2005). "Elizabeth Murray Retrospective: Critics' Panel". Historic Audio from the Museum of Modern Art. New York. 108 minutes in. Art on Air.
