Adam McEwen at
The Goss-Michael Foundation, Dallas
April 13–July 28, 2012
1405 Turtle Creek Boulevard
Dallas, TX 75207
Hours: Tuesday–Friday 10–6pm
Saturday 11–4pm, Monday by appointment only
There is no charge to visit the Foundation.
The Goss-Michael Foundation is pleased to present an exhibition by British artist Adam McEwen. The exhibition opened to the public on Friday, April 13 and continues through Saturday, July 28.
The Goss-Michael Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing a forum for contemporary art and with a focus on British Art by presenting exhibitions and programs, aims to educate, engage, and inspire young and adult audiences in Texas, the United States, and around the world. Earlier exhibitions have featured Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Sarah Lucas, Marc Quinn, Michael Craig-Martin, Jim Lambie, and Nigel Cooke.
Adam McEwen’s show at The Goss-Michael Foundation consists of different media including sculpture, painting, and installation. McEwen’s work resides somewhere between the celebratory and the funereal. It identifies strands of European melancholy in the Pop object, and the scuffs of history and consumerism on the sheened surfaces of minimalism.
This is represented through his sculptures, made of machined graphite, a material McEwen has employed since 2007. Each meticulously carved sculpture reproduces the original in scale and detail. These mute representations of everyday objects—an air conditioner, a drinking fountain, an unfurled yoga mat—have a deadened, perfected air that is at odds with their banality and intimacy.
McEwen’s work often aims to shake us temporarily out of our passive acceptance of mass media and to highlight the blurred line between history and fiction. One of McEwen’s best known works, Untitled (Jeff, Nicole, Macaulay, Bill, Rod, Marilyn, Malcom), part of The Goss-Michael Collection, is from his Obituary series shown at the Whitney Biennial in 2006. He used the over-familiar format of the obituary to create momentary ruptures of accepted reality since the obituaries were of famous people who in fact were still alive.
His monochromatic paintings with blobs of dirty, chewed gum stuck on the canvases, some named after German cities bombed in World War II, work like meditation pieces on expectations, including The Goss-Michael Collection’s New York, New York. He has created works made of text messages sent from friends which taken out of context seem to turn into riddles and cryptic questions, twenty of which are permanently installed as wall text at the Foundation titled Untitled Text Msg.
Adam McEwen was born in Great Britain in 1965 and currently lives and works in New York. Adam McEwen’s work has been included in numerous group shows including Haunted, Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010); Beg, Borrow and Steal, Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2009); The Reach of Realism, MOCA Miami (2009); Into Me/Out of Me, MoMA PS1, New York; and the Whitney Biennial 2006, New York. In 2010 he curated Fresh Hell at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, as part of their Carte Blanche series.
The Goss-Michael Foundation was founded by George Michael and Kenny Goss in June 2007. The Foundation offers the public a rotating schedule of exhibitions derived from Goss and Michael’s private collection of British contemporary art as well as other institutions. These exhibitions serve as a challenge to preconceived art notions and strive to set a new standard in artistic awareness by providing visitors with fresh and fascinating art experiences. Through these experiences, the Foundation hopes to generate new perspectives and conversations on the creative methods of contemporary artists. Locally, the Foundation is dedicated to contributing to Dallas’ thriving artistic community and enhancing the public’s familiarity and interaction with contemporary and emerging British artists. The Foundation fosters young artists in Dallas, and throughout Texas through numerous scholarships and art education programs.
*Image above:
Adam McEwen, Untitled (Jeff, Nicole, Macaulay, Bill, Rod, Marilyn, Malcolm), 2002–2004. C-print, 40 x 29 inches. Photo: Nicole Klagsbrun, New York. Courtesy The Goss-Michael Collection, Dallas, TX.
