Self Portrait (Pelicans)
2026
Within a silhouetted profile frame inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's iconic imagery, two brown pelicans occupy the interior space against a gradient blue background. The birds, rendered in precise detail with golden head plumage and dark wing feathers, gaze outward with penetrating orange eyes, their long beaks extending toward the frame's edge. This work exemplifies Israel's conceptual approach to self portraiture, where the artist conflates human identity with animal subjects and symbolic forms. The piece merges photography with graphic design conventions, characteristic of his Los Angeles based practice that bridges Post Pop sensibilities and contemporary image making. The head shaped frame functions as both container and metaphor, suggesting interior consciousness made visible through carefully selected imagery.
- Medium
- Archival pigment print in artist's frame
- Framed
- Signed
- Yes
- Spotted At
- Gallery · Pace Prints
Notes
Pace Prints, 'Where is My Mind?', April 30 – June 6, 2026. From Alex Israel's 'Self Portrait' series; Hitchcock-inspired profile silhouette frame designed by the artist. Set of all 10 prints from the series is also available framed at $175,000.
For Sale — $20000
More by Alex Israel
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Alex Israel makes images, objects and experiences that balance an elevated, almost debased rush of visual pleasure with a scalpel-like intellectual sharpness. Like Los Angeles, the artist’s home and—in many ways his most fertile medium—his works find their depth in the seamlessness of their surface and the artifices that construct them and which they in turn deconstruct. It is clear that the artist, one of the most important voices of his generation, is able to instrumentalize our star-filled and wide-eyed Hollywood dreams and collective memories within a specific lineage of post-war American painting and conceptual, intellectually driven art making.
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