{{Short description|American artist, writer, and editor (born 1975)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2025}} {{Infobox artist | name = Alex Jovanovich | image = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1975}} | birth_place = Hobart, Indiana, U.S. | education = School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA, 2003) | field = {{Flatlist|* Drawing * mixed media * slide projection}} | website = }} '''Alex Jovanovich''' is an American artist, writer, and senior editor at ''Artforum'' whose practice merges visual work and critical writing.<ref name="whitney">{{cite web |title=Whitney Biennial 2014: Alex Jovanovich |url=https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2014-biennial/alex-jovanovich |website=Whitney Museum of American Art |access-date=December 31, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190313124750/https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2014-biennial/alex-jovanovich |archive-date=March 13, 2019}}</ref><ref name="artforumcontrib">{{cite web |title=Alex Jovanovich, Editor |url=https://www.artforum.com/author/alex-jovanovich/ |website=Artforum |date=December 30, 2024 |access-date=December 31, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231007173819/https://www.artforum.com/author/alex-jovanovich/ |archive-date=October 7, 2023}}</ref><ref name="cleveland">{{cite web |last=Saunders |first=Heather |title=Alex Jovanovich: The Artist's Contemplative Work Is a Match for the Museum's Library |url=https://www.clevelandart.org/articles/alex-jovanovich |website=Cleveland Museum of Art |date=April 17, 2018 |access-date=December 31, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240224073048/https://www.clevelandart.org/articles/alex-jovanovich |archive-date=February 24, 2024}}</ref> He works in drawing, writing, and 35mm slide projection, and his work has exhibited at such institutions as the Whitney Biennial.<ref name="whitneycatalog">{{cite book |last1=Comer |first1=Stuart |author-link1=Stuart Comer |last2=Elms |first2=Anthony |author-link2=Anthony Elms |last3=Grabner |first3=Michelle |author-link3=Michelle Grabner |title=Whitney Biennial 2014 |date=2014 |publisher=Whitney Museum of American Art |location=New York |isbn=978-0-300-19687-0 |pages=357–358 |url=https://archive.org/details/whitneybiennial20000whit_u9a8/page/357/mode/1up}}</ref>
==Early life and education== Jovanovich was born in 1975 in Hobart, Indiana.<ref name="whitney" /> He received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2003.<ref name="saic">{{cite web |title=FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art Opens |url=https://www.saic.edu/node/15354 |website=School of the Art Institute of Chicago |access-date=December 31, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922111910/https://www.saic.edu/node/15354 |archive-date=September 22, 2023}}</ref>
==Career== ===Visual art=== thumb|alt=Intricate black ink drawing of tangled organic tubes, spiral shell forms, and animal silhouettes interwoven within ornate rectangular border filled with geometric and crosshatched patterns|''I Fucked Your Dad Then Slit His Throat (WHITE FECES/SCUM CUNT)'', 2025. India ink and pencil on watercolor paper. Jovanovich works primarily in 35 mm slide projection and drawing, in black-and-white, to address themes of love, spirituality, melancholy, and mourning.<ref name="whitney" /><ref name="artforum-foumberg">{{cite web |last=Foumberg |first=Jason |title=Alex Jovanovich at Adds Donna |url=https://www.artforum.com/events/alex-jovanovich-197780/ |website=Artforum |date=2013 |access-date=December 31, 2025}}</ref><ref name="cleveland" /> His drawings include his hand-lettered text amid disembodied human orifices, flowers, and leather straps.<ref name="artforum-foumberg" />
He uses text in his work, both writing his own words and pulling from public-domain sources, including the Bible.<ref name="whitney" /><ref name="cleveland" /> Some works incorporate domestic objects such as cufflinks and diaper pins, which Jovanovich described as being blessed by a witch.<ref name="portland">{{cite news |last=Arango |first=Jorge S. |title=More Summer Art Shows to See |newspaper=Portland Press Herald |location=Portland, Maine |date=July 7, 2024 |page=E.5 |url=https://www.pressherald.com/2024/07/07/more-summer-art-shows-to-see-out-west-up-the-coast-and-close-to-home/ }}</ref>
====Critical reception==== An ''Artforum'' review of Jovanovich's 2013 exhibition likened his work to a hypothetical collaboration between Christina Ramberg and Lee Bontecou, and noted how "shockingly sensitive" it is.<ref name="artforum-foumberg" /> His drawings have been described as "obsessively drawn works in ink and graphite reminiscent of some occult manual."<ref name="portland" /> ''The Village Voice'' noted the contrast between the name of a 2025 piece (''I Fucked Your Dad Then Slit His Throat (WHITE FECES/SCUM CUNT)'') and the "sheer graphic delight" of "delicately wrought fields of pencil lines complementing bold black ink designs".<ref name="villagevoice">{{cite news |last=Baker |first=R.C. |title=Two Artists Ask: How Abject Do You Wanna Get? |url=https://www.villagevoice.com/two-artists-ask-how-abject-do-you-wanna-get/ |newspaper=The Village Voice |date=December 18, 2025 |access-date=December 31, 2025}}</ref>
Jovanovich's use of words in his art and skill as a writer were among the reasons he was selected for inclusion in the Whitney Biennial, part of curator Anthony Elms's stated goal to make the exhibition "a literary event."<ref>{{cite web |last=Goldstein |first=Andrew M. |title=Whitney Biennial Curator Anthony Elms on the Rise of Literary Art and the Usefulness of Ghosts |url=https://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/whitney_biennial_curator_anthony_elms_interview/ |website=Artspace |date=March 5, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140315034808/http://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/whitney_biennial_curator_anthony_elms_interview/ |archive-date=March 15, 2014}}</ref>
====Selected exhibitions==== * 2013: "Some Poor Girls," Adds Donna, Chicago<ref name="artforum-foumberg" /> * 2014: Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; curated by Stuart Comer, Anthony Elms, and Michelle Grabner<ref name="whitneycatalog" /><ref name="thompson">{{cite journal |last=Thompson |first=Michael |title=The 2014 Whitney Biennial: The Book as a Medium in Contemporary American Art |journal=The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America |volume=109 |issue=2 |date=June 2015 |pages=147–192 |doi=10.1086/681814 |jstor=10.1086/681814}}</ref> * 2015: "Making a Scene: Objects for Performance," Museum of Arts and Design, New York<ref name="mad" /> * 2018: FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art, Cleveland Museum of Art; curated by Michelle Grabner and Jens Hoffmann<ref name="Front2018">{{cite web |last=Greenberger |first=Alex |title=Artist List Revealed for First FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/artist-list-revealed-for-first-front-international-cleveland-triennial-for-contemporary-art-8675/ |website=ARTnews |date=July 20, 2017 |access-date=December 31, 2025}}</ref><ref name="cleveland" /> * 2024: "If You Lived Here You Would...," Gingerbread House, Norway, Maine; with Valerie Hegarty, Adam Payne, and Michelle Grabner<ref name="portland" /> * 2025–2026: "Actual Queers Kissing!" Elliott Templeton Fine Arts, New York; with David Carrino<ref name="villagevoice" /><ref>{{cite web |title=David Carrino & Alex Jovanovich: Actual Queers Kissing! |url=https://elliotttempleton.nyc/david-carrino-alex-jovanovich |website=Elliott Templeton Fine Arts |access-date=December 25, 2025}}</ref>
===Art criticism=== Jovanovich is a senior editor at ''Artforum'', where he contributes exhibition reviews, artist profiles, and art criticism.<ref name="artforumcontrib" /> His writing includes profiles of such artists as Brigid Berlin, John Currin, Clarity Haynes, Gerard Malanga, and Peter McGough; and reviews of exhibitions at such museums as MassMOCA, SFMOMA, Tate Modern, and the Whitney, and such independent galleries as Gagosian, Invisible-Exports, Matthew Marks, and Pace.<ref name="artforumcontrib" /><ref name="jovanovich-haynes" />
==Personal life== Jovanovich is of Serbian Orthodox heritage.<ref name="mad">{{cite web |title=Museum of Arts and Design Hosts Series Examining the Role of Objects in Contemporary Performance |url=https://madmuseum.org/press/releases/museum-arts-and-design-hosts-series-examining-role-objects-contemporary-performance |website=Museum of Arts and Design |date=March 25, 2015 |access-date=January 10, 2026}}</ref> He lives and works in the Bronx.<ref name="whitney" />
He is openly gay.<ref name="jovanovich-haynes">{{cite magazine|magazine=Artforum|url=https://www.artforum.com/events/clarity-haynes-246907/|title=Clarity Haynes|last=Jovanovich|first=Alex|date=April 2020|volume=58|issue=8|quote=This is a general yet reasonably accurate description of an obese, middle-aged physique—one that belongs to me, a gay man.}}</ref> At age 10, Jovanovich saw Andy Warhol on ''The Love Boat'' and has described it as a formative experience, saying he saw in Warhol "something of myself" and "some glimmer of hope for a future."<ref>{{cite web |title=Interpreting Andy Warhol with Alex Jovanovich |url=https://www.artforum.com/video/interpreting-andy-warhol-167750/ |website=Artforum |date=July 14, 2023 |access-date=January 10, 2026}}</ref>
==See also== * List of Whitney Biennial artists#2014
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.artforum.com/author/alex-jovanovich/ Jovanovich at Artforum]
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Jovanovich, Alex}} Category:1975 births Category:American art critics Category:American contemporary artists Category:American gay artists Category:Living people Category:People from Hobart, Indiana Category:School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni Category:LGBTQ people from Indiana