David Benrimon Fine Art is proud to announce our January show, Alex Katz: Ada and Flowers, which will feature two full print portfolios of the artist's work. The show will run at the same time as the Guggenheim exhibit Alex Katz: Gathering, an expansive retrospective on the artist across his eighty year career. This is Katz’ second major retrospective; he also had one at the Whitney in 1986.

This exhibition will feature a series dedicated to Katz’s wife and longtime muse, Ada, whom he has painted over 250 times. His interest and development in portraiture blossomed out of his paintings of Ada, which began in the 1950’s when they met. The Floral Suite compliments the Ada portfolio in Katz’ colorful aesthetic. The artist returned to the natural subject matter during the pandemic in 2020. Katz masterfully reduces perspective, eliminates extraneous detail, and sharpens the contours through the cropping and arrangement of his flowers.

Alex Katz’ impressive eight decade long career, is devoted to the intricacy of human perception, and the exploration of the here and now, otherwise referred to as “painting in the present tense”. Emerging in the heyday of Abstract Expressionism and right before the boom of Pop Art, Alex Katz masterfully combines coolness with intimacy through his formal training in fashion, advertising, and film. Whether depicting his closest companion, or an everyday aspect of nature, Katz renders his subject to its simplest form and color, highlighting specific details and imperfections to emphasize their beauty.

Born in New York, Alex Katz (b. 1927) is an American figurative artist known for his highly stylized paintings, prints and sculpture. His commitment to figuration would lead him to become one of the most celebrated and recognized artists in contemporary figurative painting. Today, Katz’ work resides in institutions worldwide, including The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Tate Modern in London, and the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., among others.