Adam Dant "Bibliotheques and Brothels"
Adam Baumgold Gallery (60 E 66th St.)
This event has ended.
Adam Baumgold Gallery presents an exhibition of drawings by Adam Dant, "Bibliotheques and Brothels". Passions inflamed by the library and the bedchamber come together in this new series of intriguing, perverse and enlightening works. In these drawings, Adam Dant depicts bibliophilia as a form of physical lust: hallowed and ordered chambers of learning such as the New York Public Library, The Library of Alexandria and the library of Dant's local mosque transform into repositories of desire. Scenes in which licentiousness and culture collide are rendered in detailed sepia ink and wash, and heightened with elaborate gouache decorative borders and gold leaf embellishments.
The large drawing "The Dissolution of the Call Centres," 2009 depicts an alternative realm where scholarly virility is celebrated and worshipped. Dant imagines the scriptorium of St Michael's monastery infested by the modern industry of 'outsourced telephony': call centre workers replace medieval monks, while a large group of stern and violent Victorian gangmasters supplants Henry Vlll's zealous reformers. The drawing's intricately patterned edge is illuminated with photographic roundels that assist in the creation of a convincing faux icon or bogus historical document. The result is a theatrical tableau which parodies the banal stereotyping of the media and advertising.
This is Adam Dant's fourth solo exhibition at the gallery.
[Image: Adam Dant exhibition invitation, (2010) Ink on paper 13 13/16 x 10 5/8 in.]
Media
Schedule
from October 28, 2010 to November 27, 2010