Alex Hartley

Hartley’s work addresses complicated and sometimes contradictory attitudes toward the built and natural environments, showing us new ways of physically experiencing and thinking about our constructed surroundings. In The Houses he brings together photographic and overlaid painterly elements to examine the idea of the viewpoint, the frame and the boundary – between interior and exterior, manmade and natural environments, public and private space, two and three dimensions. Iconic examples of modernist domestic architecture, photographed by the artist over the past twenty-five years, primarily in Los Angeles, form the basis of these atmospheric monochrome works, in which the photographic image lies separated beneath hand-painted elements which describe and embellish a verdant landscape. Crucially, the works embody an uncanny ambiguity. In some images the manmade structures seem to be overwhelmed and overrun by the vegetation. From another perspective, the images can be read as exploring the ways in which man inserts himself into nature. 

Hartley graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1990 and lives and works in London and Devon. He has exhibited internationally since the 1990s. His works are in collections including the Arts Council Collection, London, Government Art Collection, London, Caldic Collection, Rotterdam and the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna.