1979 – 1980
Basquiat: East 12th Street
~150 intimate photographs of Jean-Michel Basquiat before the art world knew his name — shot in the East Village apartments they shared.
View SeriesPhotographer & Embryologist
New York · East Village
Statement
From mid-1979 to mid-1980, I lived with Jean in three different apartments, but for most of that time in an apartment that we shared on East 12th St. This was a time before Jean had canvases to work with, so he used whatever he could get his hands on, as he was constantly creating.
About
Alexis Adler is a New York-based artist and scientist whose dual career in professional embryology and documentary photography has never been incidental. Trained in biology at Barnard College, she spent two decades leading the embryology team at NYU and helped establish it as a world leader in IVF.
Whether photographing a teenage Jean-Michel Basquiat practicing clarinet in a bathroom, or rendering human embryos as fine-art micrographs, the instinct is the same: observe carefully, and preserve what would otherwise be lost.
Represented by The Bishop Gallery, Brooklyn, NY.
Get in TouchSeries
1979 – 1980
~150 intimate photographs of Jean-Michel Basquiat before the art world knew his name — shot in the East Village apartments they shared.
View SeriesOngoing
Scientific micrographs of human embryos rendered as fine-art prints — life at its most formative, invisible stage.
View SeriesRecord
The 12th Street Experiment: Photography of Jean-Michel Basquiat
Basquiat Before Basquiat: East 12th Street, 1979–1980
Basquiat Before Basquiat: East 12th Street, 1979–1980
Basquiat Before Basquiat — Initiating Venue
Basquiat: East 12th Street, 1979–1980
Jean-Michel Basquiat: Works from the Collection of Alexis Adler
Early Humans — Embryo Micrograph Series
Press
Book
Selected Press
On the Work
"You could wake up one morning and put your feet down and the floor would be painted… and you just stepped in it. He knew that he was a great artist."Alexis Adler
Inquiries
Gallery Representation
The Bishop Gallery
Brooklyn, New York
Press & Media
contact@alexisadler.com
Links