At Gagosian Beverly Hills – the powerhouse gallery’s outpost in the land of sunshine, celebrity, and extreme ego-centricism – Alex Israel and Bret Easton Ellis have dug deep into the shallow Angeleno psyche in a way that only two LA natives can.
The unexpected duo unveiled a set of collaborative paintings last week, the opening timed as a precursor to the Gagosian’s annual star-studded Oscars party. The works take new samples of Ellis’s text – brief narratives on the trials and tribulations of seeking fame – and lay them across quintessential stock images of LA that Israel selected and purchased the licensing to. (The actual labour, meanwhile, was carried about by the Warner Brothers production crew that regularly fabricates Israel’s work.) It’s a millennial interpretation of Los Angeles’ heritage of text-based paintings, in the tradition of both Ed Ruscha and John Baldessari (who, coincidentally, opened a show of new text-based paintings in LA just before).
In the gallery, familiar tropes of the Los Angeles quest for celebrity abound: musings on Instagram, Uber, and Chateau Marmont; images of the Downtown LA skyline, the pastel ocean sunset and palm trees galore. The two together were meant to look like the credits that float over the opening scenes of a film.
‘In Los Angeles, I knew so many people who were ashamed that they were born and not made,’ one reads, over a backdrop of hot-pink terrazzo and the familiar shadow of a palm frond. Another, foregrounded by the silhouettes of palm trees that seemed to be swaying in the wind, reads ‘I’m going to be a very different kind of star’.
Different kind of star is a wholly accurate description for Ellis and Israel. As author and artist, they officially live outside the realm of Hollywood, but the two have risen to fame, in LA-parlance, Hollywood-adjacent. Their respective works have relied heavily on their distillation of LA cliché and iconography, which inextricably revolve around The Industry, but they perpetually blur the fine line between criticism and celebration. Ellis’s 1985 breakout novel, Less Than Zero, surveyed the depraved landscape of privileged LA excess. ‘I’ve thought about the book as a readymade,’ Israel told Ellis in a 2010 Purple magazine interview. ‘Its text seems plucked right out of life.’
The unexpected duo unveiled a set of collaborative paintings last week, the opening timed as a precursor to the Gagosian’s annual star-studded Oscars party
The works take new samples of Ellis’ text – brief narratives on the trials and tribulations of seeking fame – and lays them across quintessential stock images of LA, as selected by Israel. Pictured: The Uber Driver, 2016
The actual labour, meanwhile, was carried about by the Warner Brothers production crew that regularly fabricates Israel’s work. Pictured: Different Kind of Star, 2016
Familiar tropes of the Los Angeles quest for celebrity abound: musings on Instagram, Uber, and Chateau Marmont; images of the Downtown LA skyline... Pictured: Mr Ripley, 2016
... the pastel ocean sunset and palm trees galore. Pictured: Born and Not Made, 2016
The stock images with their written overlays were intended to look like credits that float over the opening scenes of a film. Pictured: Hotel California, 2016
‘I’ve thought about [Less Than Zero] as a readymade,’ Israel told Ellis in a 2010 Purple magazine interview. ‘Its text seems plucked right out of life.’ Pictured: PCH, 2016
INFORMATION
’Alex Israel/Bret Easton Ellis’ is on view until 23 April. For more details, visit the Gagosian’s website
Photography: Jeff McClane. Copyright Alex Israel and Bret Easton Ellis. Courtesy iStock and Gagosian Gallery
ADDRESS
Gagosian Beverly Hills
456 North Camden Drive
Beverly Hills, California
-
'You can feel their presence': step inside the Eames' Pacific Palisades residenceCharles and Ray Eames’ descendants are exploring new ways to preserve the designers’ legacy, as the couple’s masterpiece Pacific Palisades residence reopens following the recent LA fires
-
The great American museum boomNine of the world’s top ten most expensive, recently announced cultural projects are in the US. What is driving this investment, and is this statistic sustainable?
-
Here’s how Heathrow is reimagining airport chaos as ambient musicGrammy-nominated Jordan Rakei turns travel noise into a meditative soundtrack by sampling everything from baggage belts to jet engines
-
Mystic, feminine and erotic: the power of Penny Slinger’s bodies as landscapeArtist Penny Slinger continues her exploration of the sacred, surreal feminine in a Santa Monica exhibition, ‘Meeting at the Horizon’
-
Photographer Geordie Wood takes a leap of faith with first film, DiversGeordie Wood delved into the world of professional diving in Fort Lauderdale for his first film
-
New book celebrates 100 years of New York City landmarks where LGBTQ+ history took placeMarc Zinaman’s ‘Queer Happened Here: 100 Years of NYC’s Landmark LGBTQ+ Places’ is a vital tribute to queer culture
-
A major Takashi Murakami exhibition sees the world in kaleidoscopic colourThe Cleveland Art Museum presents 'Takashi Murakami 'Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow', exploring outrage and escapist fantasy
-
Ai Weiwei’s new public installation is coming soon to Four Freedoms State Park‘Camouflage’ by Ai Weiwei will launch the inaugural Art X Freedom project in September 2025, a new programme to investigate social justice and freedom
-
Leonard Baby's paintings reflect on his fundamentalist upbringing, a decade after he left the churchThe American artist considers depression and the suppressed queerness of his childhood in a series of intensely personal paintings, on show at Half Gallery, New York
-
Desert X 2025 review: a new American dream grows in the Coachella ValleyWill Jennings reports from the epic California art festival. Here are the highlights
-
In ‘The Last Showgirl’, nostalgia is a drug like any otherGia Coppola takes us to Las Vegas after the party has ended in new film starring Pamela Anderson, The Last Showgirl
