The gallery will open on September 7 with two concurrent solo exhibitions by Marcel Dzama and Jockum Nordström.
This will be Canadian artist Marcel Dzama's (born 1975) second solo show at the gallery. His figurative pen and watercolor drawings, with the now characteristic palette of muted brows, grays, reds, yellows and greens have been internationally exhibited, most recently in Venice, Dusseldorf and Geneva.
Typically, Dzama strips his figures of all extenuating circumstances including philosophical and political pretensions, and therefore strips them of a narrative potential. The figures are left bare and simple with traces of unspoken inhibitions falling away. Dzama places his modestly scaled and increasingly detailed figures on large 10 x 13-inch sheets of Manila paper. His figures and words swim in a sea of blank space, transforming the inherent potential of that blank space to reveal a sea of invisible possibilities. Each drawing is an opportunity for viewers to contemplate a range of disparate subjects like Spiderman, faux film noir scenes, absurd Surrealist dramas, The Wizard of Oz, mutant Inuit forms, The Grapes of Wrath, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's City of Lost Children, a multitude of l950s sci-fi sets, E.T., or many other sources from high and low forms of culture.
Jockum Nordström (born 1963) lives and works in Stockholm. This will be his first solo exhibition in the United States. Nordström is a versatile artist, working in a wide range of mediums, including animated film, painting, collages, illustration books, drawings, and he is also a confirmed musician. The gallery exhibition will focus on his graphite drawings.
The drawings are all figurative, with strangely familiar characters posing in unlikely situations. Animals and nature have begun to wander into the recent work. Humor and humanity are subtle and apparent. One is immediately surprised by the timelessness quality and style used. Disguised in what appears to be simple, almost primitive drawings, his art could also remind certain viewers of Balthus, or even De Chirico.