Urban Sprawl: The Painting Portfolio of Alex Selkowitz
Afternoon Conversation, oil on canvas
Alex Selkowitz is an oil painter based in Los Angeles. Alex’s paintings address themes and imagery of urban sprawl and suburban living, taking furniture, detached homes, streets, and first-world detritus as motifs.
A Distance Between, oil on canvas
I’m fascinated by the way that Alex’s paintings capture an atmosphere that’s distinctly “Los Angeles,” while still evading any real regional categorization. The artist’s paintings of lawn furniture, abandoned shopping carts, and rays of sun casting shadows on stucco exteriors are familiar in a vague, dreamlike sense, where one gets the sense that they’ve been in the very house or backyard that’s pictured.
Alex's art portfolio website, www.alexselkowitz.com
Though Alex’s paintings are mostly devoid of human figures, they remind me in a way of the paintings of Andrew Valko. Both artists seem to explore an atmosphere of isolation, and the unique type of loneliness that comes from being alone in a densely populated urban centre.
