ALEX ISRAEL

The four sculptures on view, enlarged versions of those found on surfboards, allude to both Southern California surf culture and postwar Los Angeles art history. Carved from Plexiglas and rendered in varying degrees of reflectivity and transparency, the works’ sleek production and emphasis on physical and perceptual experience invite dialogue with the region’s Finish Fetish and Light and Space movements of the 1960s. The sculptures’ pop-inflected colors evoke the commercial aesthetics employed by surf brands to convey the freedom and optimism long associated with Southern California’s coastal lifestyle. Each work is titled after a beloved pop song, adding to its aura of collective longing and nostalgia.

The new fins, related to those first exhibited at Gagosian Rome in 2023, are here inverted and suspended from the gallery ceiling. This unexpected positioning recalls surfers performing a “turtle roll,” going “over the falls” (being caught on the lip of a wave before plunging upside down), or simply the orientation of the fins beneath the water as board riders paddle out. The installation also lends the gallery, with its street-facing windows, a fish tank–like appearance, positioning viewers at an “underwater” vantage.

Israel’s inspiration for using the fin as an artistic motif may be traced back to his feature-length teen surf film SPF-18 (2017). Since then, it has appeared on his Louis Vuitton Artycapucines handbag design (2019), in his official logo for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and on the temples of the sunglasses he produced in collaboration with Oliver Peoples to support victims of the Los Angeles wildfires (2025). In April, Israel also designed the fin-shaped statuette presented to recipients of the inaugural California Arts Council Awards in Sacramento.

An essay on the exhibition by Susan Casey—author of The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean (2011)—will appear online in Gagosian Quarterly.