Paintings and drawings by Alexander Ross (b. 1960):
Alexander Ross, Untitled, watercolor, color pencil, graphite, flashe, 23″x15″, 2008
Lichen and lizard fingers, protozoa and prog rock, tentacles and topiary, wax puddles and putty bloops. Fritz Kahn’s capillaries, Max Ernst’s microbes, Kurt Seligmann’s tornadoes, and heirloom tomatoes. Richard Powers book covers, Roger Dean album covers, Rick Griffin rock posters. Matta and Moebius and morphological mutiny.
Alexander Ross creates green-blue hyperspaces informed by microbiology. His alien occupants and monstrous blobs are figures inspired by observations that he makes through the lens of a microscope. Ross short-circuits his biology-based systems by distorting and enhancing that which he sees–sometimes translating his observations into clay macquettes which he will photograph, manipulate in Photoshop, and print out to use as collage elements for his works on paper. [via]
I am psyched to present the work of the artist I knew only as flickr user “Sarcoptiform” for a couple years. (These works appear with his permission.)
Most of the links in the paragraph above will bring you to scans from the sarcoptiform flickr page. I can’t resist linking to more: microscapes, rug fuzz, mossy pigs, wood whorls, Spanish cartographers, pollen on papillae, Pink Floyd bootleg art. (It’s amazing for me to see Alex’s work side-by-side the “raw data” circling in his brain.)
Some links: Wall at WAM, chronology, 2005 exhibition notes, @ David Nolan gallery, @ Marianne Boesky gallery.
Click for larger views!
Alexander Ross, Untitled, 2008
Alexander Ross, Untitled, watercolor, colored pencil and graphite on paper, 2008
Alexander Ross, Untitled, ink, graphite, color pencil, 30″x22″, 2009
Alexander Ross, Untitled, ink, graphite, color pencil, 28″x22.24″, 2009
Alexander Ross, Untitled, flashe, ink, watercolor, colored pencil and graphite on paper, 2007
Alexander Ross, Untitled, watercolor, colored pencil and graphite on paper, 2007
Alexander Ross, Untitled, ink, watercolor, colored pencil and graphite on paper, 2007
Alexander Ross, Untitled, colored pencil and graphite on paper, 2005
Alexander Ross, Untitled, graphite on watercolor, 40″x32″, 2009
Alexander Ross, Untitled, colored pencil and crayon on paper, 2008
Alexander Ross, Untitled, watercolor, colored pencil, flashe, ink and graphite on paper, 2005
Alexander Ross, Untitled, colored pencil on paper, 2009
Alexander Ross, Untitled, watercolor, colored pencil and graphite on paper, 2007
Alexander Ross, Untitled, watercolor, colored pencil and graphite on paper, 2007 (detail of the above)
Alexander Ross, Untitled, oil, 92″x76″, 2006
Alexander Ross, Untitled, oil, 98″x71″, 2003
Alexander Ross, Untitled, oil painting in progress, 2005
Alexander Ross, Untitled, oil, 96″x85″, 2004
Alexander Ross, Untitled, oil on canvas, 65.25″x96.25″, 2002
Alexander Ross, sketchbook drawing – colored pencil, flashe and graphite, 2008
Alexander Ross, Untitled, colored pencil and graphite on paper, 2005
Alexander Ross, Untitled, colored pencil and graphite on paper, 2000
Alexander Ross, Untitled, ink, graphite, 18″x20″, 1999
Alexander Ross, Untitled, oil on gessoed cardboard, 5 x 5 inches, 1986
Alexander Ross, Untitled, graphite, 30″x22.25″, 2003
Bio from “Morphological Mutiny” exhibit:
Alexander Ross (b. 1960, Colorado) earned his B.F.A. from Massachusetts College of Art in 1983. He has received the Lewis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2004), the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2003), and the Philip Morris Juror’s Merit Award for New American Talent (1997). His works have been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide since in the mid 1990s, including an eight year survey at The Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis (2008), Remote Viewing at the Whitney Museum of American Art (2005), SITE Santa Fe, NM (2004), The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NY (2007); The Columbus Museum of Art, OH (2007); The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, NY (2006); The American Academy of Arts and Letters, NY (2002); Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City (2001); PS1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY (2000); and SEAD Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium (1998).
Previously:
Wandering from Organ to Organ with Hermann Finsterlin
Posts on Charles Seliger
Biology Today
