Alexander Apóstol - Regime: Dramatis Personae

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, South Grand Avenue 250, 90012, Los Angeles

20 de setembro de 2026 – 3 de janeiro de 2027

*Regime: Dramatis Personae* (2018) by Alexander Apóstol is a series of black-and-white portraits that examines the relationship between art and political power, especially how authoritarian systems shape and distort social roles. Born in Venezuela and based in Madrid, Apóstol has long used photography, video, and installation to probe Latin American geometric abstraction and the ideological foundations of modernism. This project draws on his research into Venezuela’s political history to present archetypal figures rather than specific individuals, portraying the gestures, postures, and identities performed under populist and authoritarian regimes. Made in Caracas during the violent repression of 2017, the photographs were developed with trans and LGBTQ+ activists who modeled chosen characters from the artist’s dramatic cast. From the full series of ninety images, Apóstol selects and reorders portraits for each presentation; for MOCA, he showed thirty-four works, including figures such as The Dictator, The Masked Police Officer Who Acts with Impunity, and The Trusted Public Official, Dismissed and Persecuted.