Self Portrait (Road Trip)
2026
Within the vibrant yellow profile frame, a desert landscape unfolds featuring a distinctive Joshua tree, sandy terrain dotted with sparse vegetation, and rocky mountains beneath a clear blue sky. The right side of the composition is interrupted by a white recreational vehicle or camper, its windows mirroring the saguaro cacti and desert scenery beyond, creating a visual dialogue between interior and exterior space. This work exemplifies the artist's signature approach of merging autobiography with sculptural framing and conceptual photography, where the head shaped silhouette becomes both container and protagonist. The juxtaposition of vehicle, landscape, and the viewer's implied vantage point engages with themes of American travel, self perception, and the romance of the open road. Part of a larger suite exploring introspection through landscape and portraiture, the work reflects the post Pop, Los Angeles based practice that treats identity and imagery as malleable, constructed narratives.
- 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
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
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.
As It Lays
2012
Start the Discussion
Request access to join the discussion