Folkert de Jong
The Boxer, 2019
Courtesy of Marc Straus Gallery, Photo: Ken Tan
Courtesy of Marc Straus Gallery, Photo: Ken Tan
Courtesy of Marc Straus Gallery, Photo: Ken Tan
Courtesy of Marc Straus Gallery, Photo: Ken Tan
Courtesy of Marc Straus Gallery, Photo: Ken Tan
Courtesy of Marc Straus Gallery, Photo: Ken Tan
On April 12th, Folkert de Jong‘s solo exhibit Tumbler will open at the Marc Straus Gallery. De Jong’s art embodies a macabre humor, like the 20th-century artists Georges Grosz and James Ensor, that precisely satirizes the zeitgeist.
For his inaugural exhibition at MARC STRAUS, Tumbler, De Jong obliquely critiques on political play and power structures, and for de Jong, all high-stakes negotiations take place in the company of whiskey. In his new tableau, the whiskey bottle, carafe, ice, and the crystal tumblers—all handmade sculptures— denotes the watershed where the future is determined. With a toast and a stiff drink in hand, fates are decided, lines are drawn. The ice cubes perhaps suggest a game of dice where chance and luck favor fortunes. A nation will invade the other. A hostile corporate takeover. A manager determines with whom a boxer should fight. Advisors of the president have a say in how his wife should behave.
Courtesy of Marc Straus Gallery, Photo: Ken Tan
Courtesy of Marc Straus Gallery, Photo: Ken Tan
Courtesy of Marc Straus Gallery, Photo: Ken Tan