I posted Alex Roulette's work last
October not long after he graced the cover of
New American Paintings. Since then new pieces have been periodically showing up on his
Flickr page. One of the most remarkable things to me, is that almost everything he reveals is excellent. Most of us recognize that you have to work your way through a good deal of mediocrity to find the occasional golden touch and generally, the artist is too close to his or her own work to be the best judge of which is which. So with each new amazing piece I've made a note to myself to do an update on this up and coming contemporary realist. The other day I happened to see the painting "Jump" (below) in the latest issue of
Harper's magazine (you won't see it on the website) and figured the time is now. He applies a photo-realist approach to a particular american mythology, the misadventures of young men. Not a surprising theme given that Alex was born in 1986. What is surprising is that he is able to portray his subject matter with both intense honesty and dispassionate objectivity creating compelling narratives of surprising poignancy.
Check out his website:
www.alexroulette.com
I urge you to click on the images below and view them a good deal larger!
"Jump" oil on panel 24" x 38" 2010
"Airborne" oil on panel 26" x 37" 2010
"Windmill" oil on panel 30" x44" 2010
"At The Lake" oil on panel 20" x 21" 2010
"At Swim" oil on panel 28" x 42" 2010
"At Swim" detail
You've got a really great blog here. Thank you for keeping up your explorations and sharing them. I've discovered many an artist after finding your site this week.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm reminded that my website is in super need of updating. If you'd like to check it out though, I'd be honored as a fellow Portlander! It's http://home.comcast.net/~jennarty/art_home.html