Alex Kwartler

Taken as a whole, Kwartler’s work defies a singular style. Moving effortlessly between figuration, abstraction, and representation the work draws from imagery and experience; from offhand observation and moments taken directly from the artist's life, to the art historical and the textual. Kwartler has developed an approach resembling an interior monologue or conversation; his paintings make leaps, digressions, and diversions between themselves which taken together read as a web of continuous connection and becoming. Using a variety of techniques, from slow pictorial rendering in oil to the fast polished surfaces of his plaster ‘frescos’ each painting follows its own material and visual logic within the larger whole. Individually, the discreet works form a kind of catalog of thought and observation. Collectively, the works are combined and set against one another forming a lexicon that functions like a visual grammar for thoughts in time.

Alex Kwartler received his MFA from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ and his BFA from The Cooper Union, New York, NY. Kwartler has mounted three solo exhibitions at Magenta Plains. He has exhibited his work at The Green Gallery, Milwaukee, WI; 47 Canal, New York, NY; Parapet Real Humans, St. Louis, MO, MoMA PS 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, NY; Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ; White Columns, New York, NY; Bortolami Gallery, New York, NY; Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, NY; Martos Gallery, New York, NY; Petzel Gallery, New York, NY; and Wallspace, New York, NY. His exhibitions have been reviewed in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Frieze, Artforum and Art in America. Kwartler’s paintings were featured in “Painting Abstraction” edited by Bob Nickas and published by Phaidon Press. Kwartler was artist-in-residence at The Chinati Foundation in Marfa, TX in Spring 2017. The artist lives and works in New York, NY.

Born in 1979, New York, NY
Lives and works in New York, NY

Education

2015

MFA, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

2002

BFA, The Cooper Union, New York, NY

Solo and Two Person Exhibitions

2024

Alex Kwartler, Parapet Real Humans, St. Louis, MO

2022

Eclipse, Magenta Plains, New York, NY
Alex Kwartler + Margaret Lee: you may make your pile, here, The Green Gallery, Milwaukee, WI

2020

Alex Kwartler and Sam Roeck: Always, JDJ | The Ice House, Garrison, NY

2018

Drawing, 2 Bridges Music Arts, New York, NY
Deutsch + Kwartler: Slow and Fast, PRACTISE, Oak Park, IL
Snowflake, Magenta Plains, New York, NY

2016

Pain Quotidien, Magenta Plains, New York, NY

2014

A Superficial Lyric, Nathalie Karg Gallery, New York, NY

2011

Allison Katz + Alex Kwartler: To the People of Montreal, Battat Contemporary, Montreal, CA

2005

Paintings, John Connelly Presents, New York, NY

Group Exhibitions

2024

The Salon by NADA & the Community, Magenta Plains, Paris, FR
Swim Hole, Magenta Plains, New York, NY
Felix Art Fair with Magenta Plains, Los Angeles, CA

2023

Viewing Room I, with Jane Swavely and Tiril Hasselknippe, Magenta Plains, New York, NY

2022

To Lean-Into, curated by Jesse Willenbring, Ceysson & Bénétière, New York, NY
Impressions of the Fall, 47 Canal, New York, NY
The Palliative Turn, Kunstlerhaus Bremen, Bremen, DE

2021

Friends & Family, Magenta Plains, New York, NY
The Palliative Turn, Brandenburgischer Kunstverein Potsdam e.V., Potsdam, DE
GTFO, curated by Brian Droitcour & Allyson Vieira, Always Fresh Pizzeria, New York, NY

2020

This Sacred Vessel, Arsenal Contemporary, New York, NY
This Sacred Vessel: Online, Arsenal Contemporary, New York, NY

2019

Flat Out: Drawings, 2000–2019, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ
What Wind, curated by Eric Palgon, Ceysson & Bénétière, New York, NY
NADA Miami, Magenta Plains, Miami, FL
Frieze New York, Magenta Plains, New York, NY
Independent NY, Magenta Plains, New York, NY

2017

Social Photography V, carriage trade, New York, NY

2013

From Radiance and Dissolution, Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin, DE
Alex Kwartler and Elke Solomon, Klaus Von Nichtssagend, New York, NY

2012

Stretching Painting, Galerie Lelong, New York, NY
== by Matt Keegan, with Michele Abeles, Michèle Didier, Brussels, BE
Phases, Wallspace, New York, NY

2011

Looking Back / The 6th White Columns Annual selected by Ken Okiishi and Nick Mauss, White Columns, New York, NY
Channel to the New Image, Friedrich Petzel, New York, NY
We Regret to Inform You There is Currently No Space or Place for Abstract Painting, Martos Gallery, New York, NY

2010

Re-Dressing, Bortolami Gallery, New York, NY
Gradation curated by Garth Weiser, Portugal Arte 10, Lisbon, PT

2009

Parallel, Bortolami Gallery, New York, NY
The Merits of Silence, Min Min Gallery, Tokyo, JP
Not So Subtle Subtitle, Casey Kaplan, New York, NY
Blue Smoke Brittle Leaves, Fordham University Lincoln Center Gallery, New York, NY

2007

Destroy Athens, AB1 Athens Biennale, Athens, GR
The Wu-Tang / googolplex Show, GBE@passerby, New York, NY
Currygrit, GBE@passerby, New York, NY
Signs of Precarity, Klaus von Nichtssgand Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Late Liberties, John Connelly Presents, New York, NY
Rose Colored Glasses, GBE@passerby, New York, NY

2006

Abstraction, Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, NY
Bronson Tropics, Pauline, Los Angeles, CA

2005

The Painted World, MoMA PS 1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY
Dark Dreams, Johnen & Schöttle, Cologne, DE
Barricade, Rivington Arms, New York, NY
No. 18., Champion Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY