Launched at Printed Matter's LA Art Book Fair
2017
In a new zine launched at the 2017 edition of Printed Matter's LA Art Book Fair, Marcel Dzama and Raymond Pettibon turn their distinctive artistic collaboration to address recent political events. This 36-page full-color zine includes drawings, collages, comic strips, and protest posters. The result is the artists' personalized version of a political pamphlet filled with vibrant, vocal responses to topical subject matter. Dzama's Instagram account features images of some of the works, posted directly from the studio as he and Pettibon were making them.
This is the fourth zine the two artists have produced together. Their first, Dzama / Pettibon (2015), published by David Zwirner Books to coincide with Printed Matter's New York Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1, assembled a series of works they created using the "exquisite corpse" method in which they traded drawings and developed each other's compositions.
Well-known for prolific drawings that incorporate diverse influences into his own visual language, Dzama has expanded his practice in recent years to encompass sculpture, painting, film, costume design, and dioramas. Pettibon—for whom this ongoing project is a rare collaboration with another artist—has been making zines since the late seventies. His commitment to the spectrum of "low" and "high" culture, from comics and album covers to literary references, has long been an inspiration for Dzama. Over 700 works by Pettibon were presented in the solo exhibition A Pen of All Work at the New Museum in New York in February 2017. The exhibition travels to the Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht in The Netherlands in June 2017. In April, the gallery presented The Mask Makers, a special project curated by Dzama, at Independent Brussels.
Proceeds from sales of the zine were donated to the American Civil Liberties Union. Published by David Zwirner Books.