Alex Gardner
Good Luck
亚历克斯·加德纳
好运
X Museum
Beijing, China
Langyuan Station, E1 (Building 10), No. 53 Banjie Tower Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China
场地 北京市朝阳区半截塔路53号郎园STATION E1栋（10号库）
December 17th, 2023–February 25, 2024
展览开放时间：2023年12月17日-2024年02月25日
The Hole is proud to announce Alex Gardner's solo show at the X Museum opening this weekend:
X Museum is delighted to present American artist Alex Gardner’s first solo exhibition in China. The exhibition is titled ‘Good Luck’, and is on view from December 17, 2023, to February 25, 2024 in Gallery 3-5 at X Museum in Beijing. The exhibition includes fifteen artworks by Gardner over the past six years, from 2017 to the present. ‘Good Luck’ features a wide range of anonymous figures depicted by Gardner through various situational and atmospheric-making techniques, exploring cultural and political identities beyond race, as well as tensions within intimate relationships. ‘Good Luck’ is a commonly used and even universal phrase that can be found in many cultural contexts. Expressive and wisecracking in nature, ‘Good Luck’ can denote a variety of literal and metaphorical meanings. Apart from the word’s common use to express encouragement, it oftentimes embodies opposite connotations that may be deemed opportunistic, indifferent, speculative, and agnostic. This slippery phrase captures optimism and condescension, reflecting our high hopes and despair living in contemporary society.
The unique style of Gardner’s paintings is characterised by the stark contrast between dark, smooth skin and light-shaded clothing, the minimalist composition in both imagery and character representation, and the aesthetics of relations revealed through details of the body. Gardner uses acrylic on canvas or linen. The entwined bodies in his works convey an initial sense of coldness and decisiveness, and then caring hands, gentle embraces, and smooth caresses become equally evident. Gardner draws inspiration from real-life events and scenarios - the figures portrayed possess full and rounded bodies, delicately protruding joints, slender bare feet in mysterious and loose postures…yet these emotionally charged figures are not granted any facial features. The artist’s omission of the face skips references to specific ethnicities and individuals, further highlighting the universal human experience. The silhouettes of men and women in Gardner's paintings are immersed in a soft and ambiguous atmosphere, simultaneously caught in conflicts of anxiety and confusion, and these moments of vulnerability belong to everyone.
What truly unfolds in each artwork is mysterious yet familiar, perhaps speaking to the ever-changing dynamics of interpersonal relationships. The artist's works are imbued with a cinematic touch—viewers are spectating from a fixed perspective, carefully observing the relationships between Others. Observing the rejected individualism and how human reality is understood as an “ensemble of social relations”. Gardner creates nebulous surroundings with dim hues in his recent works, the bodies are outlined by flickering glimmers, and skin colours are further rendered opaque. Perhaps what truly matters is not where we are or with whom we are sharing the moments, but the emotions that we are open to perceive and embrace, as well as the anxiety and apprehension that may lurk beneath the veneer of beauty and serenity. The titles of Gardner's paintings are often playful and ironic, containing carefully crafted phrases that sometimes defy interpretation, and other times (mis)leading or twisting interpretation. These qualities of humour and comedy reveal the artist's approach to reconciling endurance and contemporary dilemmas.
In Gardner’s works, there is no clear appropriation of images and symbols that exist in specific cultural systems. Instead, they repeatedly return to an universal human experience. This seems to be a form of resistance and decomposition to the very system on which contemporary art production relies. But it cannot be denied that these vivid scenes continuously echo our contemporary experiences and personal memories, at some time, somewhere, and with someone.
About the artist
Alex Gardner (b. 1987, Los Angeles, CA) lives and works in Long Beach, CA. The artist received his BFA from California State University in Long Beach in 2011. Solo exhibitions include Long Beach Museum of Art (Long Beach, CA), Loyal (Stockholm), Koenig (Berlin), The Hole (New York), SCAD Museum of Art (Savannah, GA), New Image Art Gallery (Los Angeles). His work is included in the public collections of Museo Jumex (Mexico City), Institute of Contemporary Art Miami (Miami) and X Museum (Beijing).
Alex Gardner is a figure painter working in acrylic to make intense and memorable scenes. His entangled ink-black bodies are draped with dramatically folding white cotton separates and posed in pastel environments where the reflections of color produce subtle gradients and thoughtful tonal shifts.
In these paintings the artist charges the familiar with poignancy, highlights the details as important, and paints figures that all genders and races could see themselves in. Mimicking snippets of classical painting—from an El Greco hand to a Pietà carry, a crucifixion foot, a Michelangelo muscle group—he is not just inserting his contemporary identity into art history, but also opening up these art historical perspectives for all viewers to connect with.
2023年12月17日至2024年2月25日，X美术馆将于展厅三至展厅五呈现美国艺术家亚历克斯·加德纳于中国的首次个展“好运”。本次展览囊括了加德纳从2017年至今近六年创作的十五件绘画作品。展览《好运》梳理了加德纳近年来通过多种情境描绘和氛围营造的绘画手法所刻画出的匿名人物形象，探索超越种族的文化政治身份，以及亲密关系中的张力。“好运”是一个常用的甚至是通用的短语，存在于许多文化语系中。“好运”是一个极具表达力的词语，也颇具俏皮的性质，可以表示各种字面和隐喻的含义。这个词除了常用来表达鼓励之外，它往往还具有截然相反的内涵，可能被视为机会主义、冷漠、投机和不可知论的象征。这个多义的短语捕捉到了我们日常生活中怀揣期望和屈尊俯就的瞬间，反映了我们在当代社会中充满希望和绝望的社会体验。
黝黑光洁的皮肤和浅色衣物的强烈对比，颇具极简风格的画面构成和人物形象，以及从身体局部的细节之处透露出的关系美学等均构成加德纳绘画风格的独特来源。加德纳使用丙烯绘制于布料，媒材和画面中交织缠绕的躯体在初见之时传递着冰冷而果决的观感，而随着对作品的深入了解，关怀的手、温柔的拥抱和光滑的爱抚同样显而易见。加德纳的灵感来源于真实的人物和事件——充盈圆润的躯体、骨节突出纤细的手掌和赤足、神秘松弛的姿态……这些情绪各异的人物形象却没有被赋予可供辨认的任何面部特征。艺术家对于面部特征的模糊处理消除了对特定族裔和人物的指代，进一步强调了人类的普遍经验。加德纳笔下的男女剪影沉浸在柔软暧昧的氛围中，也囿于焦虑和困惑的冲突中，而这些脆弱的时刻属于所有的人。
每幅作品中真正发生的事情都是神秘而熟悉的，这或许说明了人际关系中不断变化的景象。艺术家的作品充满着镜头感——观者被置于一个具体的视角而小心翼翼地观察着“他者”之间的关系。观察着被拒绝的个人主义，以及人的本质如何为“一切社会关系的总和”。在加德纳最新的创作中，暧昧昏暗的色调，身体的边缘由闪烁的微光勾勒而出，肤色被进一步的模糊处理。或许真正重要的并不在于身处何地或者与谁相拥，而在于那些能够被我们所体察并接纳的情绪，亦关于在美丽与乐观的表象主义下可能蛰伏的不安与惶恐。加德纳的绘画作品常常被赋予戏谑而玩味的标题，这些标题中时而有着精心设计过的词不达意，时而扭转观众对于画作的解读。幽默诙谐的喜剧色彩中透露着艺术家面对苦难和当代困境的处世准则。
加德纳的作品中并没有对现成品、任何文化体系中已成为符号的图像进行的挪用，而是一次次地回归到一种普世的人类经验。这似乎是在消解和抵抗当代艺术创作所依赖的体系。但不可置否的是，这些色彩鲜明的场景又不断地唤醒着我们对于当代生活的体验和记忆，在某时某地和某人。
关于艺术家
亚历克斯·加德纳（Alex Gardner，1987年生于加利福尼亚州洛杉矶）现工作和生活于加利福尼亚州长滩。加德纳于2011年获得加州州立大学长滩分校艺术学士学位。他的个展包括长滩艺术博物馆（加利福尼亚州长滩市）、Loyal画廊（斯德哥尔摩）、Koenig画廊（柏林）、The Hole画廊（纽约）、SCAD 艺术博物馆（佐治亚州萨凡纳）、New Image 艺术画廊（洛杉矶）。他的作品被 Museo Jumex（墨西哥城）、迈阿密当代艺术中心（迈阿密）和 X美术馆（北京）收藏。
亚历克斯·加德纳绘制人物，他用丙烯描绘紧张而难忘的场景。他笔下纠缠在一起的墨黑色躯体披着大幅折叠的白色棉单衣，在粉彩环境中摆出各种姿势，色彩的反射产生着微妙的渐变和丰富的色调变化。
在这些画作中，艺术家将熟悉的事物赋予凄美的色彩，强调细节的重要性，并描绘出所有性别和种族都能看到的人物形象。他模仿古典绘画的片段——从埃尔·格列柯的手到皮耶塔的背，从基督受难式的脚到米开朗基罗的肌肉群——他不仅将自己的当代身份融入艺术史，还为所有观众打开了这些艺术史视角。
