Alex is back! In his 4th show with us since 2004, Alex Diamond presents his latest series of works, a project study titled "Being Alex Diamond". The experiment that is Alex Diamond enters the into next phase. Photography blends with painting and drawing, and the mask has moved into the center of attention. The series consists of approximately 40 photopaintings. Other new works include drawings ... and lots of tentacles.

In time for the opening, GUDBERG-Verlag publishes the first book by Alex Diamond ... stay tuned for more info or visit the site of the publisher (click the image below).

>>> buy the book online (heliumcowboy web store)

BACKGROUND

Being Alex Diamond is a bit like being a superhero because just with the audience of these artificial figures, for Alex Diamond’s spectators, the human person and personality behind the furry mask with its numerous tentacles lies in the dark. In 2004 the artist made his first appearance at the Hamburg based gallery heliumcowboy artspace with his show “Alex Diamond’s Strange Sofa“ – and undeterredly proceeded on his way into the world of contemporary art and the art marked with various international group shows and further solo exhibitions at heliumcowboy artspace in 2005 (“Gold, Kinder!“) and 2007 (“Love me with a Gun to my Head“).

Unmistakably Diamond – as an emerging and promising artist – managed to establish himself as an acknowledged member of the contemporary art world and make his name being recognised. However, the person behind the pseudonym Alex Diamond is still unknown in the public. Even after Diamond appearing in changing bodies and characters from time to time, always carrying the recurring tentacle mask on his torso. Just like in his upcoming show “Don’t worry ‘bout a thing (Being Alex Diamond)”, running from October 17th until November 13th 2009 at the heliumcowboy artspace,

Alex Diamond will then present his latest works and results of his project study being titled “Being Alex Diamond”: an intensive discussion with himself about questions circling around the issues of the own identity, the power of the ego, the generation of a personality, social role models as well as some sort of natural schizophrenia. Mixing both photography and painting (Diamond calls this “photopainting”) the “Being Alex Diamond”-series includes almost 40 works showing Diamond himself appearing in altering shapes, bodies and personalities, inventing himself over and over again – his face always hidden behind the very mask, that turned out to be his trademark. These photopaintings will be amended by further drawings and installations. With the upcoming show, Diamond takes to a higher level, what already begun in 2004 with his premiering exhibition in Hamburg: Diamond playing around with the question, how important an artist personality is for the art itself, the question of cult stars but as well of the allures of total anonymity.

Until today Alex Diamond seems to be a nature without its own body, without a face, without a past or leaving traces behind. Not being graspable as a person and not being an artist that can be fit into a stylistic or technical category box, Diamond sometimes seems to be more like a fantasy than a real person. However, the latter does not have any impact on his art at all: Diamond’s art is solely about the work and its presentation, the art itself, being totally free and autonomic to an existing person. Diamond himself only arises with and by the art he creates. Thus, Diamond might better be described as an always altering artistic concept better than an individual or an artist personality. This way, Diamond manages to always re-invent himself in any of his monothematic projects, to change shapes and to break free from determining art categories, genres, techniques and further boundaries. The artist himself on his project study “Being Alex Diamond”: “I am an artist who lives solely through the art I create - and vice versa. I play mind tricks with visual aids, pleasing at one moment, disturbing in the next. Independent from styles and techniques, I mirror urban life and our constant fight for possession, superiority, survival and love.“
Consequently Diamond enjoys a kind of liberty many of his fellow artists are not able to experience within an art market situation often focusing on personality cult.

Thus, in the future Alex Diamond will still be anonymous like a superhero: The audience will not get to know that Spiderman is Peter Parker and vice versa. But dealing with Alex Diamond it seems that not even the real person Peter Parker with the real curriculum vitae exists. He entirely withdraws himself from our daily and empirical experience and only leaves his art behind...

In time for the opening, GUDBERG-Verlag publishes the first book by Alex Diamond. So stay tuned for more information on our website (www.heliumcowboy.com) or visit the site of the publisher (www.gudberg.de).

The Origins of the Mask: it first appeared in drawings and paintings, this one is a detail from a large paperdrawing (150 x 240cm) from 2007.

Mask created from Alex Diamond-drawings by Bitten Stetter.

Alex Diamond at exhibition in Iguapop Gallery, Barcelona, January 2009

watch in High Quality at Youtube

Very nice short film about the Installation Alex Diamond created for the ARTotale street art-project in Lüneburg, October 2009. Best to be watched in HD and with sound.

More info:

>>> ARTotale website

"Along the banks of rivers" (2009), ink on drawing paper, 30 x 40 cm

for all press related enquiries, please contact us at press@heliumcowboy.com or call +49 (0) 40 - 484 088 60
concerning the gallery, prices or buying info, exhibition and artist information, please contact Isabel Abele

>>> artist info
>>> alexdiamond.de
>>> Alex Diamond: the new book