JAMES OSTRER

 

James Ostrer’s work often tests the limits of the body politics in the ever evolving analysis of the western body, sexuality, and society. In 2009, Ostrer staged Customer Container; an installation in which the artist used photographs of himself taken by six different prostitutes under which the only condition was that they order him to perform as they wished. In 2011, his portrait of Nicky Haslam in Lucien Freud’s chair was Curator’s choice for the Taylor Wessing exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.

 

Much like Paul McCarthy’s or George Condo’s seminal works, Ostrer’s series Wotsit All About 2014 form a bizarre pattern of tribalism or cartoon-like absurdity. They are rife with a sense of ritual endeavor and colour-saturated sensitivity; while palpitating with a nostalgia for sweets they present themselves with an emphasis on the potential havoc these items also wreak within our collective life experiences. His works are often a catalogue of self- destructive behaviors, and are also managed in such a way that while transgressing themselves as odes to great works of historical art practice, they become re-packaged eye candy for uncomfortable consumption. The artist lives and works in London.