Alex Dodge

Alex Dodge (born November 28, 1977) is an American artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Dodge's work is included in many important public collections, including The Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; The Museum of Modern Art, NY, The New York Public Library, NY, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. Alex Dodge is represented by Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery and BB&M in Seoul.

Early life Born November 28, 1977, in Denver, Dodge was the middle child of three brothers. His older brother Tomory Dodge, also an artist and prolific painter, would later show at CRG Gallery where Dodge served as director for some time. Growing up Dodge had an early fascination with machines and technology of all kinds often disassembling household appliances and eventually building his own computer from parts. After working in New York for eight years as an artist Dodge began to realize a need for greater technical skills and understanding in his artistic process. He applied to MIT’s Media Lab and New York University’s ITP in 2009. Dodge attended ITP from 2010 to 2012 completing his thesis work during that time, a project titled "Kioku: A Semantic Indexing and Exploration Interface for Digital Images".

Career

Dodge's work has often explored the relationship between technology and human experience in varying degrees of subtlety.

In other works like The Adonis Plant, based on the work by Katsushika Hokusai of the same title Dodge created 3D models of human-android hybrids, using them to create a two-dimensional composition following that of Hokusai's famous ukiyo-e Shunga. In Dodge's version of the two figure's passionate embrace, the phallus has been replaced by a convoluted bundle of cables and wires and the semi-transparent skin of both figures is shown eroding in areas exposing the mechanized skeletons below.

Much of Dodge's work makes use of digital processes such as 3D modeling and computer generated imagery though often physically mediated through historical art making techniques and processes.

Dodge's second solo show at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery in 2008, which was reviewed in Artforum, included paintings inspired by the video game Katamari Damacy created by artist and game designer Keita Takahashi. Dodge and Takahashi would later become friends and work together on a project titled Souponuts. Jundt Art Museum, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY The show was a response to the then much-criticized exhibition at PS1, “Greater New York”. The show was curated based entirely on images sent via email by hopeful artists. Dodge eventually left his position at the gallery to pursue graduate study in 2009. The space expanded quickly becoming the home of such research teams as O'Reilly Media’s Atlas group as well as a number of independent researchers. The consultancy led by Dodge, Lu, and Longinus has completed projects for clients including New Era, Verizon, Target, Helmut Lang, and Samsung.