Alex Prager, 'Silver Lake Drive' at Fondazione Sozzani, Milano

The #fondazionesozzani presents for the first time in Italy the exhibition "Silver Lake Drive", in which #alexprager unites ten years of her photographic and film works.
The exhibition is curated by Nathalie Herschdorfer, director of the Musée des beaux-arts Le Locle, Switzerland.

Prager’s work is cinematic, drawing inspiration from her surroundings, personal experiences, street photography, pop culture and film. She utilizes a range of style elements reminiscent of early film genres such as film noir, thriller, melodrama and crime fiction. Women have frequently been the protagonist in Prager’s work, driven by emotion. Through the use of saturated colours and familiar imagery, Prager is able to create her own unique world where she explores darker topics in a seductive and unsettling way.

Prager’s work is rooted in the photographic tradition of William Eggleston, Diane Arbus and Cindy Sherman, each of whom mastered the art of freezing the indeterminable everyday moment. Prager’s oeuvre consists of heavily staged, large format images using rich colours. Her photographs can be seen as ‘single frame narratives’ that capture enigmatic stories within the edges of the frame. Both her photographs and films are characterised by the absence of a linear narrative.

Prager’s native city of Los Angeles serves as both a source of inspiration and the backdrop to many of her series, such as Polyester (2007), Week-end (2010)
and Compulsion (2012). Although the images appear to be capturing fleeting moments, they are preceded by a laborious production process. For her film Face in the Crowd (2013), for example, Prager had a team of more than 150 people at her disposal, in addition to 350 extras and a collection of props that the artist amassed over a period of 12 years.

Prager’s film, La Grande Sortie, consists of photographs and film images shot against the backdrop of the Opera Bastille in Paris. The series leads the viewer on a journey through the emotions that a prima ballerina (Émilie Cozette) experiences during her dance performance – ranging from stoicism to sheer panic. The film is a homage to the equally banal and fantastical hyper reality that is inherent to film and theatre.

Alex Prager

Born in Los Angeles in 1979, her career took flight after her work was exhibited in the MoMA exhibition New Photography (2010). Solo exhibitions of Prager’s work have been organized at Des Moines Art Center, IA (2017-2018);; Saint Louis Art Museum, MO (2015);; Galerie des Galeries, Paris (2015);; Goss Michael Foundation, Dallas, TX (2015);; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (2014);; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (2013);; and SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA (2013). In 2012, she was awarded
the Foam Paul Huf Award. Prager’s photographs have been featured in publications including Foam Magazine, New York Times Magazine, American Vogue,
W Magazine and Art in America. Her work features in the collections of numerous museums, including Foam in Amsterdam, MoMA in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Kunsthaus Zürich and Moderna Museet in Stockholm.
Silver Lake Drive was realised in collaboration with Musée des beaux-arts Le Locle, Switzerland. The exhibition is accompanied by a book published by Thames and Hudson. #alexprager is represented by Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, Hong Kong and Seoul.

Fondazione Sozzani

The #fondazionesozzani was established in 2016 by Carla Sozzani and is dedicated to the promotion of culture through photography, fashion, the fine arts, and applied arts. The Foundation has assumed the patronage of Galleria Carla Sozzani and continues all relevant public functions that the Galleria has supported for the past 29 years.

Alex Prager Silver Lake Drive

Curated by Nathalie Herschdorfer
In collaboration with Musée des Beaux-Arts Le Locle

Opening

Saturday September 14 , 2019

From 3.00 pm to 8.00 pm

On view

September 15 , 2019 – January 6 , 2020

Daily, 10.30 am – 7.30 pm
Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10.30 am – 9.00 pm

Corso Como 10 – 20154 #milano, Italia Tel +39 02 653531 fax +39 02 29004080 press@fondazionesozzani.org www.fondazionesozzani.org