Devotees of high-concept visual worlds and razor-sharp cultural remixing have reason to clear space in their calendars, Matthew Marks Gallery having unveiled Alex Da Corte: Parade, the artist’s first solo outing in New York in over five years, on show across its neighbouring West 22nd Street spaces. Known for assembling imagery from pop culture, cartoons, cinema, art history, and mid-century design into charged, psychological tableaus, Da Corte returns with eleven new sculptures staged inside a purpose-built narrative environment.
Sculpture takes centre stage, Da Corte having long described it as the backbone of his practice, explaining: “I like to think I favour sculpture because, unlike painting or photography, it has a side you cannot see. And that is uniquely human.” That sensibility shapes the exhibition’s triptych of chambers, with visitors moving through a sequence that shifts from spectacle to introspection, each section framed by reflection on the complexity and worth of elegy.
Housepainter II, 2025
Foam, plywood, resin, silicone, fur, hair,
steel, paint, hardware, muslin, glass
73 1/4 x 28 1/8 x 20 1/4 inches
186 x 71 x 51 cm.
Sad Snoopy, 2025
Resin, flock, paint, hardware
27 x 17 1/8 x 18 3/8 inches
69 x 44 x 47 cm.
Da Corte himself appears in three guises, each version a meticulously constructed persona loaded with pop-cultural charge. One room introduces the New Jersey-born artist as the Pink Panther working as a house painter, roller in hand, bathing the gallery in a wash of cartoon surrealism. Another presents him as Popeye, perched atop a brick piano, legs dangling, staring down at a pumpkin with all the concentration of a philosopher. Costuming has been part of Da Corte’s language for years, a method of probing identity through exaggeration and performance. As he puts it: “The need to dress ourselves up is something common, like the need to eat.”
The final chamber delivers the exhibition’s most ambitious gesture, a recreation of Paul Thek’s legendary 1967 installation The Tomb. Believed lost for decades, it reappears here through exhaustive research and Da Corte’s own cast body, lying in state inside a pink ziggurat. The work ripples with a tenderness that often underpins his practice. “So many of my works ruminate on the poetry of living and dying and a certain balance of joy and sadness,” he notes.
As splendidly surreal and spellbinding as ever, Alex Da Corte: Parade, runs from 7 November to 20 December 2025 at Matthew Marks Gallery, 522 & 526 West 22nd Street, New York City.
Pink Store Front, 2025
Poplar, paint, brass, foam, plasticized fabric, twine,
pegboard, muslin, coffee, velvet, fluorescent tube,
acrylic, craft paper, acrylic medium, plastic tape
154 1/2 x 212 x 24 inches
392 x 539 x 61 cm.
The Death of King Friday XIII, 2025
Nylon, plastic, fur, acrylic, foam, paint, felt, hair,
steel, rhinestones, velvet, cotton, polyester batting,
pearls, fringe, clay, brass
15 3/8 x 28 3/8 x 13 1/4 inches
39 x 72 x 34 cm.
Sad Spider-Man, 2025
Plastic, aluminum, flock, paint
60 1/8 x 30 1/2 x 36 1/4 inches
153 x 78 x 92 cm.
The Sailor, The Farmer, and The Mason, 2025
Plywood, MDF, hardware, paint, resin, wool, hair,
neoprene, clay, fur, pencil, glass, silicone
90 x 65 5/8 x 34 5/8 inches
229 x 167 x 88 cm.
The Tomb, 2025
Plywood, hardware, paint, aluminum, resin, steel, acrylic, foam, silicone, wax, plastic, hair, muslin,
paper, art glass, stainless steel rings, cotton twill, leather, rubber, framed placard, incense, light filters,
mica powder, gold leaf, glass beads, twine, polyester batting, pencil, ink, sequin pins, t-pins
102 x 138 x 138 inches
259 x 351 x 351 cm.
Lamplight, 2025
Steel, foam, resin, stained glass, hardware,
paint, flock, lead, LED, epoxy, clay
92 1/2 x 26 5/8 x 13 3/8 inches
235 x 68 x 34 cm.
Mailbox, 2025
Fiberglass, steel, paint
49 1/2 x 20 x 21 1/2 inches
126 x 51 x 55 cm.
