Vikky Alexander "Les Jardins de Versailles" @ Wilding Cran Gallery

Bring on the warm jets. In legendary pioneer of the Appropriation and Pictures Generation movements, artist Vikky Alexander mines the artifice and simulacra of paradise in a new body of work that takes us down the primrose path of the Gardens of Versailles. Since the 1980s, Alexander has explored desire and fantasy in media landscapes. In this series of collages and wall works, the landscapes are more literal, collaged and beautifully mounted on aluminum with a clash of crisp and pixelated color palettes. The blue of bygone travel agencies. The brown of a divorce lawyer’s filing cabinet. There are pieces of familiarity—old magazine cut outs, advertisements, but also photographs from the artist’s archive. Utopia deconstructed. Beauty as a slash and burn exercise in dismantling the illusions of our industrial society’s control over nature. Alexander will always be a master at this unique craft. In this case, the beautiful Gardens of Versailles denote something more sinister. The garden as a manifestation of a Jungian god complex. Vikky Alexander "Les Jardins de Versailles" will be on view until December 22 at Wilding Cran Gallery.