Dana Schutz: The Island

The George Economou Collection is pleased to announce The Island, the first exhibition by Dana Schutz in Greece. Installed across three floors of gallery space, the exhibition will feature salient works spanning more than twenty years, from Schutz’s first mature paintings completed in the early 2000s to a composition finished this year, offering an unparalleled survey of the developments in her style. Schutz’s early affinity for figuration—whether single subjects, small, enmeshed groups, or expansive “crowdscapes”—placed her at the forefront of the reemergence of representation in contemporary painting. Schutz’s fantastic images, characterized by intense gestural maneuvers and vigorous colors, feature brushwork and a palette that have evolved in tandem with her work’s increasingly intricate scope and broad scale. The Island brings together a concise group of fifteen paintings and five works on paper that demonstrate how the artist’s skills have shifted and progressed, particularly over the last several years. The convergence of these mediums sheds light on the relationship between her approach to the monochrome format of charcoal drawing and the use of color in her paintings.

The exhibition title is a playful nod to both the show’s location—Greece’s geography comprising thousands of islands—and the visual motif of isolated figures that recurs throughout the artist’s body of work beginning with the earliest paintings on view. Dana Schutz: The Island is curated by Courtney J. Martin in close collaboration with the artist and Skarlet Smatana, the director of the George Economou Collection. A publication with essays by Martin, art historian and writer Bice Curiger, and painter Andy Robert will accompany the exhibition.

Learn more at The George Economou Collection.