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| Kerry James Marshall, On Sale Black Friday, 2012, Acrylic on board, 71 5/8 x 39 3/4 x 2 3/4 inches. Image courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery. |
DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR
September 10 –
October 12, 2013
Opening reception: Tuesday,
September 10th, from 5 – 8 PM at 524 West 24th Street.
513
West 20th Street
New
York, NY
Jack Shainman Gallery is
pleased to announce DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR, an exhibition of sculpture
and paintings by Kerry James Marshall.
Marshall
is known for his figurative paintings that challenge and engage Western art
history while making black identity and representation their prime subject.
Marrying formal rigor and social engagement, his practice also encompasses
sculpture, installation, photography and minimalist painting that strive toward
a literal and conceptual black aesthetic. A radical pragmatist, Marshall
recognizes the art world is not an autonomous "free" space, but is simply
one component of the larger socio-economic order in which we operate. Marshall
explores visibility within the canon and the consumption of culture as currency
in this exhibition of recent works.
99 cent piece (One hundred thirty six thousand dollars in
change) addresses value in artwork and beyond
by simultaneously embodying high and low aesthetic ideals. A group of large
scale coins with a flawless brass patina add up to 99 cents and lay as if
haphazardly tossed on the floor. While 99 cents evokes low value, a bargain,
pocket change or the ubiquitous 99-cent-stores full of cheap items, the piece
itself is beautifully and expensively fabricated as referenced in the title’s
parenthetical. Marshall takes out the mediating object of the Readymade and
self-reflexively
focuses
on the money itself.
A
series of paintings with similarly provocative titles including Red Hot Deal,
Why Pay More, On Sale Black Friday, Black Owned and Buy
Black further provide a framework for this confluence of money, power,
agency, autonomy and access, explored through a linchpin of language and
symbols. Marshall creates an alternate archive that acknowledges the
real-politic of the art making enterprise.
Kerry
James Marshall lives and works in Chicago. Kerry James Marshall: In the
Tower is currently on view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC,
through December 7, 2013. Upcoming solo exhibitions include Kerry James Marshall:
Painting and Other Stuff at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen,
Belgium, October 4, 2013 – February 2, 2014. The exhibition will travel to the
Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Denmark; Antoni Tapies Foundation, Barcelona and the
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid.
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