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Marcel Dzama, "Neptune." (2004-2005)

Marcel Dzama

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Marcel Dzama Interview

  Introduction

2015 | June
Interview by Romeo Alaeff
See See interview in FUKT Magazine No. 14 – “Marcel Dzama in conversation with Romeo Alaeff.” p.94-105.

I find that drawing is the tool I go to first for everything.

Warning | Graphic Content

Not suitable for young children

(or the easily offended)

Marcel Dzama’s drawings are motivated by a simultaneous fascination and repulsion to the violent narratives of modern world history. They are equally inspired by the zeitgeist, fashions and art of the early 20th Century, specifically Dada and Surrealism. At once strange and familiar, Dzama’s drawings are violent and erotic, depraved and heroic, absurd and profound, disturbing and humorous. The scenes depict a universe in which good and evil are in harmonious collaboration, where politicians and animals mingle with militant ballerinas and amputee cowboys, and where so-called monsters are often at the mercy of innocent maidens or depraved humans. The unfolding narratives resemble dreamscapes in their logic, and like the passing of dreams, they slither back into the subconscious before they can be put to words. In this dreamworld, no one, neither the humans, nor the litany of creatures, talking trees or animal-hybrids, claim a moral high-ground. They are simply happy to co-exist in a spirited, sexually twisted, and violent symbiosis.

Marcel Dzama was born in Winnipeg, Canada in 1974. In 1996, he started the Royal Art LodgeThe Royal Art LodgeThe Royal Art Lodge was a collaborative group of artists based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, founded in 1996 by Michael Dumontier, Marcel Dzama, Neil Farber, Drue Langlois, Jon Pylypchuk, and Adrian Williams at the University of Manitoba. Hollie Dzama and Myles Langlois also worked with the group. In the last few years, only three of the original members remained, including Michael Dumontier, Marcel Dzama, and Neil Farber. (wiki) and received his B.F.A from the University of Manitoba in 1997. He has exhibited internationally and collaborated with the likes of Beck, Arcade Fire, and Bob Dylan. He is known primarily for his drawings which have inspired several parallel bodies of work in  sculpture, collage, dioramas, and film. He is the author of several books of drawings including the monograph, “Sower of Discord,” (Abrams, 2013) a comprehensive survey of his life’s work since 1995. He is represented by David Zwirner GalleryDavid Zwirner GalleryDavid Zwirner Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in New York City and London owned by David Zwirner that is active in both the primary and secondary markets. The gallery opened in 1993 on the ground floor of 43 Greene Street in SoHo. In 2002, the gallery moved to 525 West 19th Street in Chelsea. In 2006, it expanded from 10,000 square feet (930 m2) to 30,000 square feet (2,800 m2), adding spaces at 519 and 533 West 19th Street. This allows the gallery to mount three independent, full-scale exhibitions simultaneously. From 2000 to 2009, Zwirner was a partner with Iwan Wirth in Zwirner & Wirth. (wiki). Marcel Dzama lives and works in New York City.

Selected permanent collections: The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY. The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York, NY.  The Rhode Island School of Design Museum. Tate Modern, London, England.

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© Lines & Marks, 2015.

All rights reserved. Images courtesy of Marcel Dzama, David Zwirner Gallery and Abrams Books, and are subject to copyright. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means except via sharing from this site.

Special thanks to Marcel Dzama, Kim Donica & Ian Simon-Curry at David Zwirner Gallery, Abrams Books, Athanasios Nikitas at Greatives, Charles Cohen, Ben Klock, Ines Dobosic & Allen Houston.
Anders Nilsen, "Big Questions." (Drawn & Quarterly, 2011)

Anders Nilsen

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Anders Nilsen Interview

  Introduction

2015 | August
Interview by Romeo Alaeff

Everything I do is drawing. Drawing is everything.

anders-nilsen-profile-picture

A storyteller and humorist at heart, Anders Nilsen uses the medium of comics and the graphic novel to examine the most fundamental of philosophic questions: What the f*&k does it all mean? Beginning his artistic journey as a painter and an obsessive skateboarder, Anders Nilsen began self-publishing his philosophic ponderings in the form of an alternative comic called Big Questions in 1999. The story was serialized by Drawn & Quarterly and finally published as a complete book 12 years later. The book garnered an Ignatz Award, the Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize Award, and it was listed as one of the New York Times’ 100 notable books of 2011. Along the way, he published Dogs and Water, Don’t Go Where I Can’t Follow (both of which also won an Ignatz awards), The End, Rage of Poseidon, and Monologues for the Coming Plague. His most recent endeavor is Poetry is Useless (Drawn & Quarterly, 2015), an utterly unique sketchbook format which lovingly jabs at just about everything from God to Capitalism. It’s also probably worth mentioning his features in MOME, Kramers Ergot, the Best American Comics Anthology, Interview Magazine, The New York Times and the Utne Reader. Nilsen is the co-founder of Autoptic, a bi-annual festival of independent comics in Minneapolis and he is also an organizer for the comics residency, Pierre Feuille Ciseax. Anders Nilsen lives and works and skateboards in Minneapolis.

    Anders Nilsen, “Hercules ascending to Mount Olympus.”
Ink on Paper. 65″ x 15″
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Special thanks to Anders Nilsen and also to Julia Pohl-Miranda and Alexandra Auger at Drawn & Quarterly.
© Lines & Marks, 2015.

All rights reserved. Images courtesy of Anders Nilsen and Drawn & Quarterly and are subject to copyright. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means except via sharing from this site.

Julie Mehretu

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Interview reprinted in FUKT Magazine No. 18 – The System Issue
“Abstraction as a Subversive Act: Julie Mehretu in conversation with Romeo Alaeff.” p.178-186.

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Romeo Alaeff

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