Marlene Dumas Takes| New Works to |New York until June

Marlene Dumas returns to New York with new work for the first time in eight years. April 28 to June 30, David Zwirner Gallery features her solo exhibition Myths & Mortals. 

Myths & Mortals

On view at the gallery’s 537 West 20th Street location, this exhibition will feature a selection of new paintings that range from monumental nude figures to intimately scaled portraits.

Alongside these works, Dumas will debut an expansive series of works on paper originally created for a recent Dutch translation by Hafid Bouazza of William Shakespeare’s narrative poem Venus and Adonis (1593). In these drawings—tender and erotic with hints of violence—the artist renders the story of Venus, the goddess of love, and her tragic passion for the handsome youth Adonis in her singularly expressive ink wash.

Marlene Dumas
She speaks, 2015-2016
Ink wash and metallic acrylic on paper
11.125 x 9.25 inches (30 x 23.5 cm)
© Marlene Dumas
Courtesy David Zwirner, New York & Hong Kong

Marlene Dumas
Adonis blushes, 2015-2016
Ink wash and metallic acrylic on paper,
11.5 x 5.625 inches (29.2 x 21.9 cm)
© Marlene Dumas
Courtesy David Zwirner, New York & Hong Kong

Marlene Dumas

Marlene Dumas is widely regarded as one of the most influential painters working today. Over the past four decades, she has continuously probed the slippages and dislocations of identity and representation in her work. Born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1953, Dumas moved to Amsterdam in 1976, where she has lived and worked since. 

Her paintings and drawings, frequently devoted to depictions of the human form, are typically culled from a vast archive of images collected by the artist, including art historical materials, mass media sources, and personal snapshots of friends and family.

Gestural, fluid, frequently spectral, and deeply political, Dumas’s works reframe and re-contextualize her subjects, exploring the ambiguous and shifting boundaries between public and private selves. Since 2008, her work has been represented by David Zwirner.

David Zwirner Gallery

Representing over 40 artists and estates, David Zwirner is a Contemporary Art gallery active in both the primary and secondary markets. Since opening its doors in 1993, it has been home to innovative, singular, and pioneering exhibitions across a variety of media and genres. 

The gallery’s relocation from SoHo to W. 19th Street in New York’s Chelsea district in 2002, and its expansion from 10,000 to 30,000 square feet in 2006, has allowed multiple full-scale exhibitions to be mounted simultaneously.

Further expansion continued in New York with a new five-story building at 537 W. 20th Street, also designed by architect Annabelle Selldorf. The 30,000-square-foot gallery opened in February 2013, becoming the first commercial art gallery to receive LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. The inaugural exhibition was by Dan Flavin and Donald Judd.

In the primary sector, the gallery covers a broad spectrum of contemporary artistic practice, from seminal Minimalist works to large-scale installation and time-based performances and video work. In the secondary market, the gallery has become known for presenting historically researched exhibitions and publications devoted to the work of Modern and Contemporary artists.