In his Mixed Media collection, L.A. based artist Alex Gross found vintage portraits and re-imagined the Victorians as superheroes and villains. The crazy costumes notwithstanding, the effect contemporizes the solemn faces of Civil War veterans, society matrons, and school boys with our modern, pop-culture obsessed world. I’ve always felt remorse for the long-forgotten people in those discarded photographs in the bins of dusty antiques stores but now at least some of them have been rescued from obscurity. Gross has released a book called Now and Then: The Cabinet Card Paintings, available on Amazon, that includes photos of the original images before their transformations.
Mordo by Alex Gross
Peter by Alex Gross
Scarlet Witch by Alex Gross
Max by Alex Gross
For more information, please visit the artist’s website.
-Jayme Catalano
