Installation view at Peres Projects Kreuzberg, Berlin
Courtesy Peres Projects, Berlin

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Installation view at Peres Projects Kreuzberg, Berlin
Courtesy Peres Projects, Berlin

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Eyes, 2011 (in 2 parts)
Rented cinema prop
Courtesy Peres Projects, Berlin

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Installation view at Peres Projects Kreuzberg, Berlin
Courtesy Peres Projects, Berlin

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Installation view at Peres Projects Kreuzberg, Berlin
Courtesy Peres Projects, Berlin

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Untitled (Flat), 2011
acrylic on stucco, wood and steel frame
243.8 x 152.4 cm (96 x 60 inches)
Courtesy Peres Projects, Berlin

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Ten things you need to know about ALEX ISRAEL and his work:

1. he is an artist based in Los Angeles
2. after a BA from Yale University in 2003, and a MFA from USC’s Roski School of Fine Art in 2010
3. he upturned the art world and launched his line of sunglasses called Freeway (2010)
4. but his ideas about playing with framing and props have taken their most provocative turn in Property
5. for this project, he selected and rented individual items from a prop house more commonly used to service the entertainment industry and placed them in unconventional relationship creating unexpected narratives and juxtapositions
6. besides they’re surrounded by a line-up of sunburned orange and red-painted, stucco-coated wooden panels meant to look like the Spanish revival-style window and door frames used as sets during Hollywood’s Golden Age that he calls Flats
7. the props are sad, fake and magical. Some wear their prop-ness on their sleeve. In the gallery, they retain a stardust residue, their hollywood value. I’m also exploring what happens when they also accrue value as sculpture – ALEX ISRAEL via Purple Magazine #16
8. when the exhibition ends, they’re returned to the prop houses and re-circulated into the movies
9. I’m from Los Angeles, so I grew up in Hollywood, but was never a part of it. Because I’ve always been an outsider, I’ve always been interested in the magic of the movies—in the connection between how they manipulate us and how art can manipulate us – via
10. for the first time in Europe, Property is on view at Peres Projects (Kreuzberg) in Berlin until November 5, 2011