Alex Arcadia (born January 5, 1976) is an American painter,

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

and conceptual artist. His self-titled

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

"Arcadia" provides the framework for his large scale paintings,

sculptures Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

and installations, which are both post-Warholian

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

, and deviant in the

readymade A found object (a calque from the French ''objet trouvé''), or found art, is art created from undisguised, but often modified, items or products that are not normally considered materials from which art is made, often because they already have ...

tradition of

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...

. Arcadia is best known for his "SuperGymnast" image, an erotically charged

goddess A goddess is a female deity. In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship. For example, Shaktism (one of the three major Hinduism, Hindu sects), holds that the ultimate deity, the source of all re ...

and recurring central figure of power in his work. In the mid-1990s the SuperGymnast was planted by the tens of thousands throughout the streets of New York City as a tag, quickly making the

symbol A symbol is a mark, Sign (semiotics), sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, physical object, object, or wikt:relationship, relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by cr ...

synonymous with the identity of the artist. Arcadia debuted the SuperGymnast as sculpture atop his "Temple of Fame" (1999–2000). Artifacts from "Temple of Fame" were featured in his first New York City solo exhibition at Stefan

Stux Gallery Stux Gallery is a contemporary fine art dealership located in Manhattan, New York City. Artists represented/exhibited by the gallery have included Doug and Mike Starn, Vik Muniz, Andres Serrano, Dennis Oppenheim, Elaine Sturtevant, Inka Essenhi ...

in 2001 entitled "SuperGymnast", reviewed in the ''New York Times''. Arcadia appears in filmmaker

Ondi Timoner Ondi Doane Timoner is an American filmmaker and the founder and chief executive officer of Interloper Films, a production company located in Pasadena, California. Timoner is a two-time recipient of the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Pr ...

's 2007 documentary ''We Live In Public'', a film centered on the millennial art and performance event called ''Quiet'', which was produced by Arcadia's friend, collector, and internet figure Josh Harris, and took place in downtown

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

(1999–2000) during the last days of the

dot-com boom The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Intern ...

. Alex Arcadia continues to define a new mythology he calls Bright Shiny Future (BSF). He lives and works in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

References

1976 births American sculptors Living people {{US-sculptor-stub