Alexis Duque

New York City

In his new series of paintings, Alexis Duque presents an idealized city. Baroque in spirit, the works abound with a plethora of distinctive buildings that are a blend of fantasy and reality. Among these, he depicts an inventory of iconic New York City buildings such as the Empire State, Chrysler, Flatiron, Woolworth, Condé Nast, Philip Johnson’s AT&T building (now SONY), Frank Gehry’s IAC building, and the Guggenheim. Each of these is rendered as a blend of realistic details with the artist’s own inventions. Throughout the works, the artist is principally concerned with two themes, the skyscraper viewed among the clouds and scenes of the well-known skyline at night.

To create the works of his current solo show, Metropolis, Duque took hundreds of photographs from various local areas including Brooklyn, New York, and Weehawken, New Jersey, which has a famous view of midtown Manhattan. Most inspirational in the photos were the forms of the building themselves, which the artist rendered lovingly, emphasizing the minute details of each majestic edifice. In Uptown, one of the earliest works in the series, we see the Chrysler and the Flatiron buildings in the company of other architectural wonders from upper Manhattan, adorned in some cases with resplendent vegetation.

Praxis

September 13th – October 20th, 2012
541 West 25th Street
New York, NY 10001
USA

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