Jordan Wolfson: ARTISTS FRIENDS RACISTS

David Zwirner is pleased to present new work by American artist Jordan Wolfson, on view at the gallery’s Paris location. The exhibition is composed of an installation of HYPERVSN 3D holographic displays that project a range of imagery developed by the artist as well as a new series of wall-mounted brass panels featuring snapshot photographs from Wolfson’s childhood. This will be Wolfson’s fourth solo exhibition with David Zwirner. A concurrent installation of the works will be on view at Sadie Coles HQ, London, opening January 30.

Throughout his career, Wolfson has examined the intersection of art, technology, and mass media, exploring the ways in which imagery and information are experienced and disseminated today.

Using CGI animation, facial-recognition software, virtual-reality headsets, and advanced animatronics, among other cutting-edge technologies, Wolfson has continuously challenged the individual’s relationship to media, information systems, and technology within contemporary society.

In ARTISTS FRIENDS RACISTS, Wolfson continues to probe American culture and contemporary life through an eponymously titled work utilizing a new holographic display technology made of spinning fans that have micro LEDs embedded in their blades. The LEDs are programmed to rapidly illuminate in a precise manner while spinning so as to create the illusion of holographic imagery floating in space. These unique devices have primarily been marketed for commercial use—as a means of luring consumers and presenting brands and products in a visually dynamic and novel way.

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Image: Installation view, Jordan Wolfson: ARTISTS FRIENDS RACISTS, David Zwirner, Paris, 2020

Location

108, rue Vieille du Temple Paris

Dates

February 6—March 21, 2020

Opening Reception

Thursday, February 6, 6–8 PM

Artist

Jordan Wolfson

Press Release

ARTISTS FRIENDS RACISTS

Jordan Wolfson

Untitled, 2020

UV print on brass

82 1/2 x 40 x 4 1/2 inches (209.6 x 101.6 x 11.4 cm)

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“Jordan Wolfson, who lives in Los Angeles, summarizes many facets of American society in his work, from publicity to entertainment, from social realities to symbols of consumerism. Using this utterly contemporary medium makes it comic, disquieting and enigmatic at the same time. Fascinating."
—Le Figaro

“Wolfson once described the gallery as a stage on to which the audience is invited to step and perform. Here the space is arranged...with works on brass ovals, like fingerprints, each printed with a childhood photograph... Printed on to brass, they recall Byzantine icons or, more pointedly, Andy Warhol’s Gold Marilyn Monroe (1962), made the year of the star’s suicide,
her face a small coloured square floating on a huge golden canvas.” —The Guardian

“Jordan Wolfson is unforgiving when it comes to injecting violence and provocative imagery across sculptural installations and film....The artist aims to shed light on thought-provoking topics like mankind’s dark impulses or the harrowing dynamics between mankind and technology.” —Hypebeast

Jordan Wolfson

Untitled, 2020

UV print on brass

82 1/2 x 40 x 4 1/2 inches (209.6 x 101.6 x 11.4 cm)

Inquire

“ARTISTS FRIENDS RACISTS is silent but for the whirring of its fans. It’s the deep, defining soundtrack of our era: the cooling fans of vast, power-hungry data centres keeping this new, networked world afloat.” —The Guardian

Jordan Wolfson and Jeremy O. Harris at Hangar Studios, New York, June 2019

“I always felt that transgression led to transformation,” Wolfson says in a recent episode of Dialogues. “Like there is this point where the hero goes through it to sort of transgressive situation to come out renewed. And that's the viewer. But in a way we're giving that to the viewer, you know, in the gallery or in the theater.”

In a provocative and revealing conversation between Wolfson and the playwright Jeremy O. Harris, the two talk suppression and transgression, pop music, pornography, and more.

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Inquire about works by Jordan Wolfson

Installation view of the exhibition, Jordan Wolfson: ARTISTS FRIENDS RACISTS, at David Zwirner in Paris, dated 2020.

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