June 1 - July 1, 2018. Opening reception: June 1st, 7 - 10pm.

AM Gallery is pleased to present Big Winners, Alexa Gilweit’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles. By overlaying the imagery of mid-twentieth century advertisements with the mysticism surrounding celestial bodies, her paintings address fundamental components of the American subconscious. 

Magazine images from Better Homes and Gardens and Farm Journal dictate the composition of her works, the figures of which Gilweit renders in varying degrees of detail, often obscuring their ghost-like faces. This obfuscation of personhood provides a vacant character for the viewer to inhabit, and simultaneously reflects current tensions between individual and cultural identity. From the era which birthed extensive media campaigns, these found images present an ideal vision of the American dream. By overlaying this modern mythology with associative titles and neon cosmic bursts that reference an otherworldly spirituality, Gilweit’s paintings contrast two powerful belief systems and prompt the viewer to question the construction of their own ideological predispositions. Thus, as she undermines accepted notions of the American psyche, Gilweit elucidates our own insignificance within the vastness of the universe, and forces the “big winners” of American privilege to contend with a fate beyond their control.

Alexa Gilweit lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.