Chris Ofili: Devil's Pie

Opening on September 20, 2007, David Zwirner is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by artist Chris Ofili, who lives and works in Trinidad. This will be Ofili's debut solo exhibition at David Zwirner and the first to unite his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking, and graphite drawing. A fully illustrated catalogue will be published by Steidl/David Zwirner in conjunction with the exhibition.

Ofili began to garner attention in the mid-1990s with his intricately constructed works, combining bead-like dots of paint, informed in part by cave paintings in Zimbabwe, with collaged images from popular media, and elephant dung. Despite shifts in his material choices, the artist has remained committed to a painting process that relies on deliberate flattening of the picture plane, carefully layered surfaces, and diffuse sources of inspiration. Over the years, both formally and conceptually, Ofili has paid homage and forged dialogue with works by artists ranging from William Hogarth, Philip Guston, Henri Matisse, William Blake, to the Blue Rider group. In this exhibition, Ofili continues, in a variety of media, his active engagement with art history and traditions of representation.

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