ALEX DA CORTE emerged on the art scene with elaborate videos and environments that mined pop culture for material and recontextualized it with brightly colored props, puppets, and masks. The Whale is the first museum show to focus on the artist’s paintings, which are more subdued yet still radiate that energy of experimentation with the highbrow and lowbrow of everyday life. Some works are made with drugstore hair products, others with cloud-like neoprene stuffed and upholstered, all revealing another side of the artist’s dreamlike layering of materials and cultural references. – ALLISON MEIER
The Whale will be on view at the Modern in Fort Worth, Texas, until September 7, 2025. themodern.org