Matthew Marks is happy to announce Julien Nguyen, the following exhibition in his gallery at 526 West twenty second Avenue. The exhibition contains twenty new work.
Julien Nguyen attracts inspiration from disparate historic intervals and cultural traditions, collapsing time and distance to create new worlds. Nguyen embodies this strategy not solely within the content material of his work, which references artwork historical past, science fiction, up to date topics, and the artist’s private life, but in addition in his supplies, which draw from Medieval, Renaissance, and conventional Japanese portray practices. This exhibition presents the artist’s first work made instantly on copper panels, a portray approach first developed throughout the Center Ages and later popularized by Outdated Masters similar to Rembrandt and Jan Brueghel the Elder.
Three self-portraits are among the many new works on view. In Anagnorisis, Nguyen attracts from Dieric Bouts’s 15th century portray The Annunciation however removes Gabriel and Mary from the composition. Of their place, Nguyen seems leaning in opposition to the again wall, gazing on the now empty room. The title comes from the Greek phrase for “recognition,” used within the context of historic theatre to explain a protagonist’s second of important discovery. Self-Portrait After Gainsborough, wherein Nguyen is seen in an 18th century tricorne hat, is modeled after the work of British painter Thomas Gainsborough.
The exhibition additionally presents recurring portraits of Nikos, which stem from Nguyen’s curiosity within the conceptual framework of the muse. In these works, primarily based on non-public moments captured on the artist’s cellphone, Nikos is seen smoking, reclining in a chair, and on a balcony in opposition to the New York Metropolis skyline.
Additionally on view is a brand new physique of labor, wherein Nguyen continues an exploration of Los Angeles, in a collection of intimate, ten-inch landscapes. An ethereal skyscape titled Mt. Olympus is called for the neighborhood in Los Angeles identified for its semi-classical structure and mythological avenue names. “I put these items in my work as hooks and barbs,” Nguyen has stated. “It’s a relentless dance of what’s identified and what isn’t. That may be a very fascinating query for me—how do sure pictures have an effect on us, the place do they arrive from, and the way do they exist out of context, in a form of confused state.”
Julien Nguyen (b. 1990) lives and works in Los Angeles.
