Alexander Knox

• Artist Statement
  • In my paintings I create visions of a dystopian post-apocalyptic future brought on by mankind's recklessness. Each one is a portrait depicting an inhabitant of this hostile world, demonstrating their harsh living conditions and the devastation of the world around them. Depending on my subjective response, they range from being visceral to more emotional and always portray a plausible situation with a sense of realism.
    
    I am inspired by apocalyptic themed computer games and films, my imagination and the entropy of modern society.
    The subject matter, both people and settings, is arrived at through photographs I have taken in and around Cape Town and other parts of South Africa, yet the result does not specifically represent a South African post-apocalypse. The locations are chosen to be of universal reference and make the viewer wonder where - and when - this will happen.
• Biography
  • DIPLOMA IN FINE ART (RUTH PROWSE SCHOOL OF ART)
    
    Alexander Knox is a Cape Town based artist. In 2015 he graduated from the Ruth Prowse School of Art, specializing in portrait painting using oils. Since the age of 16, post-apocalyptic role-playing computer games have had a huge impact on his art, which deals with a dystopian post-apocalyptic world and people struggling to survive in it - hence falling into the realm of Imaginative Realism. He has participated in various art fairs and group exhibitions in Cape Town and Johannesburg and was in the 2017 Sanlam Portrait Award Top 40.
    
    Selected Exhibitions:
    
    2017
    Art Africa Fair, Cape Town
    Sanlam Portrait Award Top 40 2017,
    Rust en Vrede Gallery, Durbanville
    
    2016
    That Art Fair, Cape Town
    DF Contemporary, Cape Town
    Rust en Vrede Gallery, Durbanville
    Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg
    
    
    
    
    
    
• Interview
  • Which new trends or South African artists do you find inspiring at the moment?
    Deborah Poynton, whom I have been compared to.
    
    Which South African deceased artist do you most admire and why?
    Walter Meyer, as he was so successful.
    
    If you could only have one piece of art in your life, what would it be?
    Caspar David Friedrich - Wanderer above the Sea of Fog
    
    How did you get started? Did you always want to be an artist?
    Art was my favourite subject in high school, but I didn't really have the ambition of becoming an artist until my final year at Ruth Prowse School of Art when my potential was unlocked.
    
    Where do you get your inspiration for your work?
    From playing post-apocalyptic video games such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl and Fallout 3.
    
    Do you have any rituals or habits involving your art-making that you can tell us about?
    Every piece involves shooting the subject, photoshopping them onto the background, priming the panel 3-5 times, then applying grids and outlines to the surface. My preferred technique is to work in layers from dark to light.
    
    What do you like most about being an artist?
    Doing what I want.
    
    Do you have a favourite or most meaningful work?
    Fading Light (2017), which was my first chiaroscuro painting.
    
    What is your greatest achievement as an artist to date?
    Entering the Sanlam Portrait Award for the first time in 2017 and making it into the top 40.
    
    What are your aspirations for the future?
    To have a solo exhibition and hopefully get into the Sanlam Portrait Award top 5.