Envy 

Curator: We're looking at Alex Gross's painting, "Envy". It's rendered with acrylic, combining realist painting techniques with elements of pop-surrealism and caricature. What's your initial impression? Editor: Intense. My gut says it's a really unsettling composition, like a warped 1950s advertisement campaign lurking in a twilight zone dimension. There’s a menacing, uncanny valley vibe radiating off of those figures. Curator: Gross often incorporates social commentary into his work. The title, coupled with the imagery of this clean cut, yet unsettling character, could speak to themes of consumerism and desire. This portrait brings to mind mid-century ideas of perfection contrasted with the reality of human flaws. Editor: Right? He's snacking on fries like there is nothing wrong with this picture, as a pale moray eel tongue darts into view and as the other dead-eyed character, oh I guess he's also pale as a moray eel, sneers like he has the fires of hell for eyeballs! I almost forgot, there's an atomic bomb exploding in the background... This is some anxiety inducing composition. Curator: Exactly. That sense of unease, is likely intentional. The combination of recognizable portraiture, but distorted through subtle stylization is reminiscent of other artists engaging with surrealism, and its influence on social narratives. The exploding cloud? Might symbolize existential dread, consumerist dissatisfaction, a generation on the precipice. Editor: Existential dread... right before you inhale some freedom fries! Maybe it's a commentary on the human tendency to crave what others possess, and this want leading to a sort of apocalyptic scenario—both personal and perhaps global. Also, the pastels feel really deliberate too; it gives the work this off-kilter and unsettling appearance... Almost sinister. Curator: Agreed. Gross plays with expectations. "Envy", isn’t simply about the surface level desire, but, could symbolize our collective desires, and the cost these yearnings may exact. Gross asks us to look at the masks we wear, and perhaps more pointedly, examine what simmers underneath. Editor: It really makes you think. After sitting with it a bit, what screams the loudest, for me, is the hollowness of it all. Those two suits and those fries; maybe it's just that everyone in the piece already got everything they thought they ever wanted? What a hell. Curator: That’s a perfect summary, an image as a commentary, prompting the viewer to reflect on our societal mirrors.