Jake and Dinos Chapman
Come and See
April 4–August 31, 2014
DHC/ART
451 & 465 Saint-Jean (corner Notre-Dame, in Old Montreal)
Montréal, Québec H2Y 2R5 Canada
Hours: Wednesday–Friday noon–7pm,
Saturday–Sunday 11am–6pm
Free admission
T +514 849 3742
T +1 888 934 2278
info [at] dhc-art.org
Organized in collaboration with the Serpentine Galleries, London.
DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art presents Come and See, the first major exhibition in North America by British artists Jake and Dinos Chapman. In collaboration since the 1990s, the Chapmans’ varied and multidisciplinary practice grapples with a wide range of themes including morality, religion, sex, death, philosophy, the history of art, and consumer culture. While provocative and deliberately confrontational, their work is also deeply critical, challenging us to acknowledge what is uncomfortable and messy through irreverence and dark humour.
This large-scale exhibition, displayed in DHC/ART’s two locations, presents a wide survey of the Chapmans’ oeuvre: sculpture, painting, drawing, printmaking, film, literature, and installation offer a riotous immersion into the horror and hilarity that inhabits their world. Among the works on view is Disasters of War IV (2001), one of the artists’ earliest print portfolios, which references Francisco Goya’s famous and critical depiction of war and its atrocities resulting from Napoleon’s occupation of Spain. The Sum of All Evil (2012–13) is the latest monumental iteration of the well-known “Hell” series of vitrine dioramas, and feature apocalyptic landscapes teeming with miniature figures of Nazi soldiers and McDonald’s characters in the throes of grotesque cruelty. The overwhelming scale of these scenes is outdone only by the incredible detail and painstaking labour evident here and in other works by the Chapmans. The Chapman Family Collection (2002) parodies traditional museum displays and ethnographic museal practices. This selection of bronze sculptures merges the fetishization of ethnographic objects with McDonald’s characters—symbols of the commercial world—in order to reveal the underlying hypocrisy of globalization, colonialism, and commercialization.
Named after Elem Klimov’s 1985 film, Come and See provides an opportunity to behold an impressive array of works by these prolific artists. Above all, however, it is an invitation to keep our eyes open, to bear witness, to question and, perhaps, even to delight.
Biographical note
Jake (b. 1966, Cheltenham) and Dinos (b. 1962, London) Chapman were nominated for The Turner Prize in 2003. They have exhibited their work extensively since the 1990s, including recent solo exhibitions at SongEun ArtSpace Museum, Seoul, and PinchukArtCentre, Kiev (both 2013); The Hermitage, St Petersburg (2012); and Tate Liverpool (2006).
Artist talk
April 2, 7pm, Phi Centre, 407 rue Saint-Pierre
Seating is limited and available on a first come, first served basis.
Additional news
DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art has designed a free iBook that will fast become a must-have for fans of the Foundation.
As of today, simply go to iTunes and search for DHC/ART to access the archives, available in both English and French, of all the exhibitions presented from 2007 to 2013.
Notebook 1: Marc Quinn
Notebook 2: Sophie Calle, Re-Enactments and Christian Marclay
Notebook 3: Michal Rovner and Survivre au temps
Notebook 4: Eija-Liisa Ahtila and Jenny Holzer
Notebook 5: Ceal Floyer, Berlinde de Bruyckere and John Currin
Notebook 6: Chroniques d’une disparition and Ryoji Ikeda
Notebook 7: Thomas Demand and Cory Arcangel
DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art
Founded in the fall of 2007, DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art is a gallery space housed in a converted historic building in the heart of Old Montreal. A privately endowed foundation, DHC/ART presents some of the most compelling works from around the world.
The Foundation—which has quickly carved out a reputation as one of Montreal’s foremost spaces for contemporary art—offers free admission and flexible opening hours.
DHC/ART also aims to foster a greater appreciation and understanding of the art it presents. For each exhibition, the Foundation offers an education and outreach program and various public events, all free of charge.
