Alex Da Corte: Free Roses

A generously illustrated book on the dynamic work of neo-pop artist Alex Da Corte, whose immersive installations and provocative objects seamlessly blend high and low culture as they explore themes of love, sex, family, death, and desire. For his largest solo museum exhibition, Alex Da Corte takes over all of MASS MoCA’s second-floor galleries, presenting a selection of existing works and an expansive new sculptural installation inspired by Arthur Rimbaud’s prose poem “A Season in Hell.” Restaging past exhibitions and remixing examples from multiple bodies of work in a fresh narrative, the artist presents his bold output in a sumptuous environment that transforms the museum space. Carpeted and tiled floors, brightly painted walls, and neon lighting create a milieu for the art that is part suburban living room, part plush strip club. Fullpage illustrations of the visually intoxicating exhibition form the centerpiece of this volume and are complemented by stills from the artist’s electrifying videos as well as reproductions of his formally rigorous, brightly colored mashups of consumer objects and appropriated images. Two essays illuminate Da Corte’s engagement with film, animation, and appropriation while exploring the personal, cultural, and political themes that run through the work. The book provides a glimpse of the prolific artist’s breadth while capturing the sensory impact of Da Corte’s simultaneously seductive and unsettling worlds.