ALEX TRACEY

PREVIOUS EXHIBITION:

‘BOYS’
3RD OF MAY - 19TH OF MAY 2018

"Virility, veiled by delicate frocks if not for a fleeting moment" 
- Alex Tracey

Jerico Contemporary presented Alex  Tracey's debut solo exhibition with the gallery, ‘Boys’. The show opened on May 3rd and continued until May 19th, 2018. 

It is unusual to feel so much when looking at a photograph and be unable to grasp exactly what that feeling is. Yet this is precisely the response one has when looking at Alex Tracey’s work. There is tension to his photographic practice, that leads one feeling simultaneously attracted and disturbed. More than a photograph, the artist offers a tone, an essence, a sensation.

Photographed on medium format film, over a two-year period in the Northern Rivers Hinterland, ‘Boys’ is the latest body of work by the Australian artist. While photographed in the unpredictable natural environment, the artist plans and constructs the settings in meticulous detail before picking up the camera and capturing the scene.  This lengthy conceptual planning process then allows for the unexpected when it comes to the sitter.

While the subjects may at first seem tough, unsettling, or even dangerous the artist captures a vulnerability and fragility to these young men that is often overlooked. At the centre of his practice is the representation of male identity, drawing associations between masculine and feminine archetypes. In presenting the boys in dresses, and traditionally feminine clothing, Tracey subverts ideas of masculinity. Undressing his subjects and revealing the softer side of their identity.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY:

Alex Tracey was born in 1994, in Sydney Australia, and currently lives and works in London, United Kingdom. The artist has worked as commercial photographer for several years, only recently extending his practice to focus on fine art.