Alex Schaefer

Alex Schaefer

Los Angeles, California

About Alex Schaefer

Alex Schaefer was born in Los Angeles, California and still resides there to this day. He lives and works in his downtown L.A. studio and is an active fixture in L.A.’s contemporary art scene. He can be found quite often with his easel on the sidewalks of the bustling downtown city streets painting en plein-air street scenes often depicting many of the historical buildings located in and around the downtown area. With his outgoing personality he is one with the city where he lives and paints. 

 Keeping abreast of current events in the news, he is not shy about including controversial and artistic satire into his paintings and often expresses his views onto the canvas. During the great American recession starting in 2008, Alex gained international notoriety for his politically charged symbolic plein-air paintings depicting banks on fire. 

 Alex studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California and is now a teacher there. His main influences are the early French Impressionists and San Francisco Bay area figurative and abstract artists of the 1950’s. His oeuvre is wide ranging from traditional plein-air landscapes, cityscapes and street scenes to figurative nudes, portraits and abstract paintings.

Education:

Bachelor of Fine Art, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena 1992 

Events:

Pasadena Museum of California Art, “California Art Club Annual Gold Medal Exhibition,” Pasadena every year from 2003 to 2011

Gallery 825, “Southern California Open,” 2005

Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Art Park, “LA Juried Exhibition,” Los Angeles, 2005

Exhibitions:

Blackstone Gallery, Streetscapes LA, Los Angeles, CA 2014

Bleicher-Golightly gallery Masters of Illusion, Bergamot Station, CA 2014

Chinatown CHAOS REIGNS performance, Los Angeles CA 2014
Charlotte Street Foundation "We'll Make Out Better Than Okay", Kansas City, MO 2013

District Gallery, "Landscapes", Los Angeles, CA, 2013

Red Pipe Gallery, City and Self, Chinatown Los Angeles, 2013

Cal State Univ Northridge Art Gallery, "Burning Wall Street", Northridge, CA 2012

Charlie James Gallery, "Irrational Exhuberance", Chinatown, Los Angeles, 2012

Beacon Arts Building, “The Ends of Capitalism,” Inglewood, 2012 

Beacon Arts Building, “Tel-Art-Phone,” curated by Mat Gleason, Inglewood 2011 

The Hive Gallery, 2005-2011

Ultrastar Gallery, “Erotic Art School I, II and III:” Class of '69, 2010 

Circus Gallery, “Strange Ranger,” 2008 

First Street Studios, “Nostalgia,” 2008 

Found Gallery, “Micro-gestalt, Installation” with Airon Bleicher, 2007 

Found Gallery, “Joint Custody Project,” 2007 

Bonham’s & Butterfields, “get: ART,” 2007 

Found Gallery, micro/Gestalt, 2007 

Tirage Gallery, “An Edgier Look,” 2006 

Jaxon House Gallery, “21st Century LA,” 2006 

Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, “Demise of Democracy,” 2005 

Hangar 1018, “The Max Show,” (bi-monthly shows), Los Angeles, 2005 

Keller & Greene Fine Art, “Twisted Nerve,” Los Angeles, 2005
 
Robert Berman Gallery, “25 Years Group Exhibition,” Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, 2004 

Santa Monica Museum of Art, “fresh stART,” Santa Monica, CA, 2003 

Robert Berman Gallery, “Hourly Rates,” Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, CA 2003 

Robert Berman Gallery, “A Thousand Clowns,” Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, 2002 

Gallery 825, “Expose(d),” Los Angeles, 2002 

ArtHouse, “Erotica,” Los Angeles, 2002 

Los Angeles Art Association, “Location, Location, Location,” Los Angeles, 2002 

Gallery 825, “Naughty Bits and Pieces,” Los Angeles, 2002 

Gallery 825, “What's the Story?” Los Angeles, 2002 

Los Angeles Art Association Southern California Open, Los Angeles, 2001 

Ross Ferrell Gallery, “Painting,” Pasadena, 2000 

ArtShare “Los Angeles,” Los Angeles, 1999