Alexander de Cadenet is a British artist working in various media: predominantly painting, photography and sculpture. He is most known for his skull portraits that are set within the tradition of Vanitas. He defines his art work as “a way to give experience meaning in a tangible form; it is an exploration into the mysteries and sacredness of life and its presentation through art”.
Life
De Cadenet was born and brought up in Chelsea, London and continues to live and work there. He was educated at and Harrow School, where he won the Lincoln-Seligmann Art Prize in 1992. In 1995, he curated Liberty a show of art by prisoners and special hospital patients, selected from the Koestler Awards Scheme. In 1996 he graduated with a B.A. from the Courtauld Institute of Art. Between 1997 – 2000, De Cadenet was the Arts Editor for Sleazenation magazine, a fashion and lifestyle magazine, featuring interviews with YBA artists. Since 2016, de Cadenet has been the contributing arts editor of Watkins Mind Body Spirit Magazine. His interviews include Eckhart Tolle and David Lynch. In 2012, de Cadenet had a daughter, Ava de Cadenet with filmmaker Kirsten Lea.
Career
Skull portraits
‘Between 1996 and 2016, de Cadenet presented a successive series of photographic "skull portraits", based on X-rays of his subjects' skulls. The ongoing series of works explores the themes of human achievement and the sacredness of art in particular within the tradition of Vanitas. The first Celebrities Series was launched in 1999 at 30 Underwood Street Gallery in Shoreditch, London. This launched de Cadenet's skull portraits concept, which he has described as ‘drawing on an everyday language and experience to communicate a deeper message”. The artist has been sourcing the skull x-rays of significant subjects from history who are no longer living for incorporation into skull portraits. As of 2015, he has made portraits of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, Adolf Hitler, Albert Einstein and Marilyn Monroe. In 2016, the artist presented a skull portrait of Richard III in conjunction with Leicester University.
Meteorite castings
Since 2008, de Cadenet has been selecting objects from his everyday life that he has wished to honour and elevate by casting them in meteorite metal which is extraterrestrial metal that is billions of years old. These include The Origin and Hunger, which are apples with bites taken from them. A meteorite apple was sold at Philips Auctioneers in 2016 setting a record price of the artist's work at auction. In 2017, he produced Meteorite Egg which is considered the largest casting made of meteorite metal ever made.
Life Burgers
In 2016, the artist launched his Life Burger sculptures in California which continued his preoccupation with human ambition, material success and mortality. The works received wide critical acclaim. In 2018, the Sunday Times reported the sale of the unique, 7 inch high, solid silver Trump Burger for £30,000 to a UK collector.
Awakened Artists
Following his meeting with spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle in 2016, the artist founded the Awakened Artists group of artists which is a community of artists whose work explores themes around evolving consciousness. In 2017, he co-produced Art Awakens Humanity, a conference at St Stephen Walbrook in the City of London, exploring the relationship between art and spirituality.
