Alex Foxton’s painting takes traditional images of masculinity, deconstructs their archetypes and reveals their complexity and ambiguity. Alex Foxton explores the personal history and humanity of the heroes or mythical figures that inhabit our western culture, painting a new narrative in the hollow of the history known to all. The figures depicted are stretched, torn between a calm face and an expressive body, tortuous or ecstatic, underlining the tension of each character. Foxton tries to get rid of the objective and dominant gaze that shapes these virile male figures to reveal an embodied vision and to let a desire for these bodies come to life.

 

Paris-based artist Alex Foxton picked up a paintbrush less than six years ago, and has already notched up two sold-out shows and a major fashion collaboration. All while working as a successful menswear designer at Dior.

 

In early 2021, I met Foxton at famous French Parisian bookstore Ofr in Le Marais. We discussed his recently released signed prints and series catalogue made for Another Magazine with Alister Mackie.