Alexander Long
Alexander Long creates sculptural works that look like celebratory cakes but examine the darker undercurrents of consumer culture. Born in Bakersfield, California in 1992, Long is based in Oakland where he crafts his distinctive gateau-esque sculptures from acrylic, oil paints, beeswax, plaster, and concrete. His works feature elaborate piping techniques borrowed from vintage cake decorating manuals, but instead of traditional birthday messages, his “cakes” display unsettling imagery: night vision footage, thermal imaging, stock photography, cowboy boots, and decorative knives.
“Whatever is placed on a cake becomes a celebration of that subject,” Long explains. By embedding military surveillance aesthetics and consumer imagery within the cheerful language of cake decoration, Long explores what he calls “capitalist fear mitigation”—how violent and disturbing imagery becomes normalised through constant media exposure. The cake serves as his perfect metaphor—simultaneously indulgent, sickening, celebratory, and kitsch.
Growing up on the rural edge of Fresno, Long watched as farmland transformed into tract housing and retail chains. “I’m interested in how corporations advertise and use imagery to manufacture desire, and in what is actually being sold,” he says. Long’s recent solo exhibition Frosted Visions was held at Book & Job Gallery, San Francisco.Screening: January 21 to February 15, 2026.
Screening: January 21 to February 15, 2026