Alexander Basil
Tidings from the Orbit

This fall, Galerie Judin will present its first solo exhibition of Alexander Basil, who was born in Russia in 1997 and subsequently raised in Germany. The 25 paintings in this group of works depict scenes and still lifes that are consistently set in an interior—that of the artist’s Berlin apartment. This interior world is dominated by a kind of clone or prototype—perhaps even an alter ego? It is a bald man with rosy skin, curvy limbs, and an ornate beard. The man is often unclothed, revealing delicate scars on his nipples that testify to a gender reassignment having taken place. We accompany this prototype during seemingly everyday activities: making phone calls, working on a laptop, lying in bed, drinking coffee, and ironing. The objects found in these tableaux are appropriately commonplace. But Basil’s narrational arrangements are by no means mundane or banal—they exaggerate the everyday into the surreal. Irons and sockets are set on fire, one of the prototypes melts, another sheds his skin.