Vessels

The exhibition is organised around three themes: Earthen Vessels, Cyborg Vessels, and Psychological Vessels. Drawing on a wide range of ideas, from spirituality to folklore, from sexuality to psychology, the works presented explore the limits of the human experience in their depictions of bodies as lived vessels as well as the issues at stake when the body is signified as a vessel.

Across all of these categories, there are slippages where the works become sites in which the human experience has taken place but also onto which social and cultural ideas are projected.

Image: Marlene Dumas, Transparent Magdalena (without head), 1996 (detail)

Location

24 Grafton Street London

Dates

March 2—April 2, 2022

Artist

Ruth Asawa, Huguette Caland, Seyni Awa Camara, Marlene Dumas, Geumhyung Jeong, Shio Kusaka, Maria Lassnig, Mrinalini Mukherjee, Alice Neel, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Magdalene Odundo, Berenice Olmedo, Pamela Rosenkranz, Andra Ursuţa, Portia Zvavahera

Installation view, Vessels, David Zwirner, London, 2022

Installation view, Vessels, David Zwirner, London, 2022

A number of the works on view can be considered Earthen Vessels, which embody a dialogue between the inside and outside. Through their use of organic materials, artists such as Shio Kusaka, Magdalene Odundo, Mrinalini Mukherjee, and Seyni Awa Camara explore in their forms the dichotomy between function and shape as well as solid and empty, with the architectonic structure of the vessel often evoking a spiritual resonance.

Seyni Awa Camara

Untitled, 2011

Terracotta

81 1/8 x 15 3/8 x 13 3/8 inches (206 x 39 x 34 cm)

$45,500

Mrinalini Mukherjee

Kusum, 1996

Hemp

58 7/8 x 39 5/8 x 51 5/8 inches (149.5 x 100.5 x 131 cm)

“It is astonishing how the manually made knot that is the basic micro unit of the sculptural syntax of [Mukherjee’s] works in rope fiber could yield such baroque and imposing floral and arboreal totems.… Their suggestive folds and rents, protrusions and openings, are poised at the wondrous moment that precedes a dehiscence.”

—Deepak Ananth, Artforum

Shio Kusaka

(line 139), 2020

stoneware

33 1/2 x 18 7/8 x 18 7/8 inches (85 x 48 x 48 cm)

Shio Kusaka, (line 139), 2020 (detail)

Shio Kusaka, (line 139), 2020 (detail)

Magdalene Odundo

Untitled, 1986

Terracotta

13 3/8 x 9 1/4 inches (34 x 23.5 cm)

“Mottled in gradations of onyx and orange in patterns that resemble dyed fabrics, [Odundo’s] pieces reward the careful observer with surprising shifts in color, pattern and detail.”

—Tausif Noor, The New York Times

Magdalene Odundo, Untitled, 1986 (detail)

Magdalene Odundo, Untitled, 1986 (detail)

Cyborg Vessels—as represented by the work of Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Geumhyung Jeong, Pamela Rosenkranz, and Berenice Olmedo—hint at the presence of a human form. These artists subvert that very presence through the use of a technical, mechanical, or robotic gesture, which often reads as a defect or ‘glitch.’ What then appears are remnants of different realities and temporalities.

In her 2020 book Glitch Feminism, curator Legacy Russell refers to the glitch as a structural failure, one that represses viewpoints outside of the dominant culture, but through which a new space can be opened up, and thus a site of potential that allows us to reinvent our humanity apart from traditional notions of race, gender, and sexuality.

Tiona Nekkia McClodden

A.B. 5_Dull 1299, 2021

Leather lineman harness, steel, leather dye, Saphir shoe polish, spit

10 x 44 7/8 x 2 3/4 inches (25.5 x 114 x 7 cm)

$25,000

Tiona Nekkia McClodden, A.B. 5_Dull 1299, 2021 (detail)

Tiona Nekkia McClodden, A.B. 5_Dull 1299, 2021 (detail)

“[McClodden’s] background in film and the medium’s attendant concerns with time and narrative have remained central to the work she makes, while allowing her to examine content as diverse as BDSM, Santeria, Autism, the erasure of Black queer artists from the canon of art history, and the multiple potentials of readymades.”

—Sara Roffino, The Brooklyn Rail

Berenice Olmedo

héxis, 2019

Polyurethane milled on Rodin 4D and anthropometric calibrators cast in aluminum and stainless steel

21 5/8 x 9 1/4 x 22 1/2 inches (55 x 23.5 x 57 cm)

$15,000

Berenice Olmedo, héxis, 2019 (detail)

Berenice Olmedo, héxis, 2019 (detail)

Pamela Rosenkranz

Express Nothing (My Body), 2021

Acrylic paint, emergency blanket

86 5/8 x 55 1/2 inches (220 x 141 cm)

$80,000

Pamela Rosenkranz, Express Nothing (My Body), 2021 (detail)

Pamela Rosenkranz, Express Nothing (My Body), 2021 (detail)

Geumhyung Jeong

Under Maintenance, 2021

Installation with DIY robotic sculptures made of various materials including aluminum profiles and DC motors, tools and parts arranged on the platform, and the five channel video screens

Dimensions variable

“An artist, choreographer and trained dancer, Jeong knows how to move and choreograph bodies, including those of this artificially assembled social fabric. The result is a dance between different actors who are completely reduced to movement and can thus transcend their own origins.”

—Fabian Schöneich, Frieze

Installation view, Vessels, David Zwirner, London, 2022

Installation view, Vessels, David Zwirner, London, 2022

Psychological Vessels bring into question the presence of consciousness, an experience explored in the work of Marlene Dumas, Maria Lassnig, Portia Zvavahera, Huguette Caland, and Alice Neel. These artists in different ways explore the limits of the body as a life-containing vessel, the physical presence of the body in a dreamscape, or the mental perception of feelings or even expressions.

Huguette Caland

Espace Blanc II, 1984

Oil on linen

78 3/4 x 78 3/4 inches (200 x 200 cm)
Framed: 81 1/2 x 81 1/2 inches (207 x 207 cm)

Huguette Caland

Espace Blanc I, 1984

Oil on linen

78 3/4 x 78 3/4 inches (200 x 200 cm)
Framed: 81 1/2 x 81 1/2 inches (207 x 207 cm)

Huguette Caland, Espace Blanc I, 1984 (detail)

Huguette Caland, Espace Blanc I, 1984 (detail)

“Instead of celebrating female empowerment per se, Caland’s work seems intent on exploding binaries such that the categories male and female, and power and resistance, cease to make sense.”

—Claire Gilman, curator

Portia Zvavahera

Woman in pain, 2021

Oil based printing ink and oil bar on canvas

80 7/8 x 61 3/4 inches (205.7 x 156.8 cm)
Framed: 82 5/8 x 63 1/4 inches (209.9 x 160.7 cm)

Portia Zvavahera, Woman in pain, 2021 (detail)

Portia Zvavahera, Woman in pain, 2021 (detail)

Marlene Dumas

Transparent Magdalena (without head), 1996

Ink and pastel on paper

39 5/8 x 27 3/8 inches (100.6 x 69.5 cm)
Framed: 43 3/4 x 31 1/2 inches (111.1 x 80 cm)

Marlene Dumas, Transparent Magdalena (without head), 1996 (detail)

Marlene Dumas, Transparent Magdalena (without head), 1996 (detail)

“Colour, form, figure, backdrop [in Lassnig’s paintings]—everything here works towards the same goal: to capture the interface between our internal and external realities, how each is transformed by the other.”

—Gabrielle Schwarz, Apollo

Maria Lassnig

Nabelschiff (Navel Boat), 1991

Oil on canvas

Framed: 78 3/4 x 57 1/2 inches (200 x 146.2 cm)

Maria Lassnig, Nabelschiff (Navel Boat), 1991 (detail)

Maria Lassnig, Nabelschiff (Navel Boat), 1991 (detail)

Alice Neel

Ruth Nude, 1964

Oil on canvas

40 1/8 x 48 inches (101.9 x 121.9 cm)
Framed: 43 3/8 x 51 3/8 inches (110.2 x 130.5 cm)

“I don’t do realism.… I hate equating a person and a room and a chair. Compositionally, a room, a chair, a table, and a person are all the same for me, but a person is human and psychological.”

—Alice Neel

Alice Neel, Ruth Nude, 1964 (detail)

Alice Neel, Ruth Nude, 1964 (detail)

Installation view, Vessels, David Zwirner, London, 2022

Installation view, Vessels, David Zwirner, London, 2022

Inquire about the works in Vessels

An installation view of the exhibition, Vessels, at David Zwirner in London, dated 2022.

An installation view of the exhibition, Vessels, at David Zwirner in London, dated 2022.

An installation view of the exhibition, Vessels, at David Zwirner in London, dated 2022.

An installation view of the exhibition, Vessels, at David Zwirner in London, dated 2022.

An installation view of the exhibition, Vessels, at David Zwirner in London, dated 2022.

An installation view of the exhibition, Vessels, at David Zwirner in London, dated 2022.

An installation view of the exhibition, Vessels, at David Zwirner in London, dated 2022.

An installation view of the exhibition, Vessels, at David Zwirner in London, dated 2022.

An installation view of the exhibition, Vessels, at David Zwirner in London, dated 2022.

An installation view of the exhibition, Vessels, at David Zwirner in London, dated 2022.

Portia Zvavahera

Woman in pain, 2021

Oil based printing ink and oil bar on canvas

80 7/8 x 61 3/4 inches (205.7 x 156.8 cm)
Framed: 82 5/8 x 63 1/4 inches (209.9 x 160.7 cm)

Shio Kusaka

(line 139), 2020

stoneware

33 1/2 x 18 7/8 x 18 7/8 inches (85 x 48 x 48 cm)

Huguette Caland

Espace Blanc I, 1984

Oil on linen

78 3/4 x 78 3/4 inches (200 x 200 cm)
Framed: 81 1/2 x 81 1/2 inches (207 x 207 cm)

Huguette Caland

Espace Blanc II, 1984

Oil on linen

78 3/4 x 78 3/4 inches (200 x 200 cm)
Framed: 81 1/2 x 81 1/2 inches (207 x 207 cm)

Pamela Rosenkranz

Express Nothing (My Body), 2021

Acrylic paint, emergency blanket

86 5/8 x 55 1/2 inches (220 x 141 cm)

$80,000

Tiona Nekkia McClodden

A.B. 5_Dull 1299, 2021

Leather lineman harness, steel, leather dye, Saphir shoe polish, spit

10 x 44 7/8 x 2 3/4 inches (25.5 x 114 x 7 cm)

$25,000

Berenice Olmedo

héxis, 2019

Polyurethane milled on Rodin 4D and anthropometric calibrators cast in aluminum and stainless steel

21 5/8 x 9 1/4 x 22 1/2 inches (55 x 23.5 x 57 cm)

$15,000

Alice Neel

Ruth Nude, 1964

Oil on canvas

40 1/8 x 48 inches (101.9 x 121.9 cm)
Framed: 43 3/8 x 51 3/8 inches (110.2 x 130.5 cm)

Seyni Awa Camara

Untitled, 2011

Terracotta

81 1/8 x 15 3/8 x 13 3/8 inches (206 x 39 x 34 cm)

$45,500

Marlene Dumas

Transparent Magdalena (without head), 1996

Ink and pastel on paper

39 5/8 x 27 3/8 inches (100.6 x 69.5 cm)
Framed: 43 3/4 x 31 1/2 inches (111.1 x 80 cm)

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