Vivianite - The Painters Blog

Alex Gross Interview

There is something arresting about the work of Alex Gross: a vaguely postmodern mix of Surreal Victorian imagery and old Japanese posters. Imagine Balthus quietly blended with Trevor Brown and you start to get the idea. An occasional illustrator and former instructor at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, and a full-time artist, Brentley Frazer found out what makes Alex Gross tick.



Hierophant


Brentley: For those who are not yet familiar with your work from your book, website or magazines such as Juxtapoz, can you tell us a bit about your background and how you found yourself to be making art as a profession?
Alex: Well, I have always been making art, and theres really nothing else that I can do very well anyhow. I played in some bands for awhile here in LA and tried to make that happen for a couple of years, but at some point decided to devote my time solely to painting. Other than music, I really never considered doing anything else. Even now, the idea of having a real job seems pretty foreign to me. I have been painting commercially for about 17 years, and doing mainly gallery work for the past ten.



Arrival


Your paintings and illustrations are quite apocalyptic, some of them remind me of tarot cards. Do these images you use portray your own vision of the world, of the 21st century, or are they fictions, dark musings?
Some paintings tend to be more about personal issues and experiences than about society or the world around me. For example, Arrival and Departure are quite autobiographical, dealing with my father’s unexpected death. In many of my other paintings, I am simply playing with images and ideas that fascinate me, much like a child does when you give him paper and a pencil, in a very unconscious way. This type of piece evolves as I work on it and I like to keep the process free from being too consciously manipulated, or too literal. This is one reason that a lot of contemporary art does not really do it for me. Work that clearly has some political agenda, and relies on a detailed explanation of the exact meaning of the piece, often leaves me cold.

Is my work fiction? No, I would definitely say not. For me, fiction would be a pretty painting of a mountain stream, with some birds and trees– a fantasy piece. Paintings like that hold little interest for me.

The world that I live in is both spiritually profound and culturally vapid. It is extremely violent but can also be extremely beautiful. Globalization and technology are responsible for wonderfully positive changes in the world as well as terrible tragedy and homogeneity. This dichotomy fascinates me, and naturally influences much of my work.



Departure


Who would you consider to be your major influences, not only painters but thinkers, musicians, poets, conceptualists…?
There are a lot of musicians that have influenced me in my life. Music affects me more deeply than any other art form. Radiohead have absoutely been the greatest creative influence on me for the last decade or so. The occasional great film can move me in the same way that great music does. And I love my favorite artists, who are almost always painters. I love having other peoples work in my house. I have a small collection of work from friends and former students and it means a lot to me. I look at it all of the time. I wish that I could buy paintings by some of my favorite artists that I just cannot afford. Aron Wiesenfeld, Jeff Soto, James Jean and Ben Marra are a few of my favorite young guns out there today, and all friends of mine too.

Vintage photographs and cabinet cards (cartes de visite) have also become a huge influence on me. I have a medium-sized collection and many of the people in these photos appear in my work. And my favorite authors have also played a large part in my work. I think that Herman Hesse, W. Somerset Maugham, and George Orwell were all geniuses and their work has really connected with me for a long time now. I would love it if just one person discovered Orwell’s less famous work, books like Keep the Aspidistra Flying or Coming Up For Air, after reading this interview. Those books are just phenomenal.


You received a fellowship from the Japan Foundation in 2000, tell us a bit about that and your interest in Japanese art.
Going to Japan for my first time, on vacation in 1998, was a life changing experience for me, in a completely unexpected way. Before that, I was only doing illustration, and not at all happy with that whole scene. My creative energies were directed towards music, but that was proving very frustrating as well. So, I took this trip, without really knowing what I was getting into, and Tokyo just blew my mind. The Blade Runner vision of the future was smacking me over the head, and I was not prepared for it. I thought everything had rice paper doors over there. I think I was pretty naive… This is a city that has absolutely cornered the market on commercialization of everything. For starters, there are pictures and advertisements for sex and sex clubs wherever you go. It is not an exaggeration to say that on virtually every street in urban city areas, there are these guys holding signs for sex clubs, phone booths with pictures of girls you can call, and assorted sex business imagery. And in areas like Shinjuku you have these long boulevards with enough neon signage to power a small nation. Most baseball teams are named for companies, not cities. Many shops blast announcements out speakers in competition with one another for your eardrums. The list is really endless. It is both fascinating and revolting all at once.

Meanwhile, there is this history of art there that is astonishing. Not only the old woodblock print stuff (which I love) but their commercial art history too. Movie poster design and magazine advertisements there just floored me. And the culture and people are so wonderful. Their attitudes towards others and towards work are pretty much the polar opposite to most Americans, and I found that really wonderful and energizing.

When I came back from my trip, I brought with me some books on movie posters and medicine packaging that were just the coolest things. The combination of those materials and the whole experience from my trip had inspired me massively to start doing some personal work, just for fun really, based on what I had seen and where I had been. For the next year I painted constantly, and this whole idea of freely mixing imagery that doesnt normally go together was really exciting to me. Theres no question that that idea came from seeing the ridiculously random mixture of influences in Japan. It was creatively very freeing to me.

And I was using all kinds of Japanese imagery in the work. Since this material was really critically important to creating new paintings, I applied for some grants and fellowships that would allow me to go back to Japan and spend additional time there collecting more of this great stuff. I was very fortunate to receive them, and I ended up spending about 9 weeks there on my fellowship. I must have shipped 6 really big boxes of books and other stuff back to the USA. It was a wonderful experience for me and my work certainly benefited as well.


You seem to be very aware of your genealogy, of where you have come from. Your website even used to contain a genealogy page. What role does your personal history play in your art?
Well, there are a couple of reasons why I did that. First, I think its really interesting when I see other artists photos of their parents, siblings or childhood. It makes me feel more of a connection to them and their work. Its just a really cool experience and I thought people would enjoy seeing where I come from, and who I come from too.

Another reason is that I absolutely love old photos and vintage pictures. The Victorian Era is the time when I would have liked to live. The photos I used to have on my site of my parents and grandparents are obviously not that old, but they still really reflect the times that they lived, and I find it interesting. I’ve now simplified my website so unforunately those photos are no longer a part of it. But in my book, “The Art of Alex Gross”, I’ve included a photo of my parents from their wedding day.


You have been a teacher of art– Tell us a bit about that and also how important do you think the role of the educator is in furthering the appreciation of contemporary art.
I taught at Art Center, my alma mater, for over ten years. It was a wonderful opportunity for me. I stopped about three years ago, and on many levels I do miss it and hope someday to teach again. The main benefit of being a teacher is the inspiration that one gets from being around so much talent on a daily basis. I have been fortunate enough to have such gifted students as Jeff Soto, Justin Wood, Saelee Oh, Daniel Lim, Erik Sandberg, Ana Bagayan, Yoko Tanaka, Korin Faught, Frank Stockton, and many, many others. I was able to see their creative development over a few years and was fortunate to be a part of the process. Being a teacher, I’ve learned so much, about art in general, and about myself. And it is an important way to keep in touch with a lot of what’s going on in the art world currently, as well as on the streets. I am very grateful to have had this opportunity and I plan to teach again in the future. However, having more free time now is something that I also appreciate. Teaching is alot of responsibility and requires a serious time commitment.

Regarding the second part of your question, I dont think that education is in any way necessary to appreciate good art. I hope that my work will appeal to anyone with an imagination, regardless of whether or not they have ever studied art. In general, I feel that most fine art educations are pompous and loaded with lots of jargon and doublespeak. The best instructors at Art Center teach how to make exciting and interesting work, and how to think more creatively.


How did you get into illustration for magazines? And what advice, if any, would you offer to illustrators who are seeking to break into the market?
Well, I went to Art Center as an Illustration major, and that is the department in which I taught, along with other gallery artists like the Clayton Brothers and Aaron Smith. At Art Center, most figurative painting is done in that department because the smaller Fine Art department focuses mostly on installation work and on concept in general, but not really on representational painting, because it’s not “modern” enough. I did lots of commercial work for over a decade, but now I have really phased that out. I only do a handful of illustrations anymore. My focus is on my own personal work. I dont really have advice for illustrators other than to say develop your own personal voice as best you can, and people will be drawn to it if it is real, it is you, and it is creative. It seems to me that most interesting illustrators wind up pursuing gallery work sooner or later, since their work is often much more compelling and accessible to people than a lot of the high art that we read about in magazines. Jeff Soto, James Jean and Mark Ryden are just a few examples of former illustrators who now mainly do gallery work.


Tell us a bit about your book and how it came about.
Well, the book is called “The Art of Alex Gross”, and it contains all of my gallery work from the first eight years of my career. It’s published by Chronicle books, and it’s been out for about two years now. It’s available all over the world and of course online too. I also have a limited edition version that’s only available through my website. That comes with a limited edition silkscreen print and a special clamshell case with gold foil stamped type. I’m pretty proud of both the regular and limited editions and I just hope that I will have an opportunity to do a second book of my work in the future.



Matasaburo of The Wind


In your painting Matasaburo of The Wind the now very familiar site of aeroplanes crashing appears, but in this case they seem to be falling out of the sky against a blackened sun.  I love this painting and I find it fascinating. Although I understand that some artists hate people asking them to explain their work, can you tell us anything about this painting and what inspired it?
I dont hate being asked about meanings in my work. I absolutely understand the urge to do it and as an art lover I have also wanted to know about other peoples intentions in their work. However, I do feel that it is better to let the viewer bring his/her own ideas when they look at a painting. Too much info from me would rob them of the chance to feel what this painting says to them.
What I will say about this piece, is that I owe a great deal of it to the great Japanese artist and designer Shinohara Katsuyuki. He is one of my favorite artists ever. He was an illustrator who did several incredible posters for Japanese underground theater in the 60s and 70s. Matasaburo of The Wind is the name of a traditional Japanese fable, and also was the name of a play for which he did the poster. The main character in that poster is the same woman that I painted in my painting.

Often, the genesis of a painting for me will be finding an image like that one, which really inspires me to take it and do something with it. I have borrowed imagery from gothic artists like Rogier Van der Weyden all the way to modern artists like Shinohara, Yokoo Tadanoori and George Tooker, to name a few. These days i tend to use mostly images that I find in old photographs.

Shinohara is still alive and goes by the name KUMA now. He does not do posters anymore, but is a well known sculptor in Japan and often appears on television. I was fortunate enough to meet him in Japan this spring and we got along wonderfully. He’s a great hero of mine.

And as a postscript, I want to mention that both Matasaburo and Ascent/Descent are paintings of mine that have crashing planes. Both pieces were completed long before 9/11 and therefore are not referencing that subject whatsoever. Of course, It would be impossible today to paint the same image without conjuring up that infamous and tragic event.



Ascent/Descent


The juxtaposition you achieve between that old world renaissance feeling and the stark post-modern reality we are living in is very effective. To what degree does your choice of medium mirror this?  For example, do you use both brush and computers?
All of my gallery work is either Oil paint or mixed media, which include oils, acrylics and some collage. I do use the computer quite a lot in the sketch phase. But in the finished product it is not really being used. Artists like Justin Wood and Erik Sandberg use a lot of 3D computer generated imagery in their final product, combining it collage-style with painting and other tangible processes that I admire. This has certainly influenced me and here and there I have used the computer in a similar manner from time to time. A few of my paintings where I used the computer extensively in the development phase and actually tried to retain that flat graphic look in the finish can be found on the previous works pages on my site. My Own Death, Arrival and Departure are three in particular that come to mind.



My Own Death


Thank you Alex for your time and your stunning paintings.
Its been fun. Thanks for asking…


Interviews Editor: Jason Arber   Interviewer: Brentley Frazer.
This interview is used with kind permission from © Pixelsurgeon.