Marcel Dzama

Lying deep within the urban metropolis of Hong Kong, Happy Valley is one of the most iconic racecourses in the world. It is also the chief source of inspiration for a new body of work by American artist Marcel Dzama.

Jockeys ride through waves and cathedrals, Chinese symbols pulled from racing paraphernalia adorn the edges of paper, and bats swoop, hunting for prey. Dzama’s distinct visions of the racetrack come alive through a series of large-scale paintings and drawings, transposing show more imagery from his prolific oeuvre into this adrenaline-filled sporting arena. His new works reflect on the culture of horseracing and how the track has become not only a symbol of sport, but also of commerce, class, and wealth.

The publication includes a conversation between Dzama and Laila Pedro. Published on the occasion of his solo exhibition at David Zwirner, Hong Kong in 2019, show less

In recent years, Marcel Dzama (born 1974) has expanded his widely acclaimed drawing practice to incorporate theatrical realizations of his magical, myth-laden cosmology in three-dimensional dioramas and films. Behind Every Curtain provides a kind of sketchbook companion or dossier on the making of his latest film, A Game of Chess. This work draws on the importance of chess for the early twentieth-century avant-garde (Man Ray, Duchamp, Picabia) and the game's curious overlap with dance, in show more films and ballets by René Clair and--of especial significance for Dzama--Oskar Schlemmer, whose 1922 Triadic Balletincluded puppet-like masked figures performing on a checkered surface. In Dzama's film, characters based on chess pieces, clad in costumes made from papier-mâché, plaster and fiberglass and wearing elaborate masks, dance across a checkered board to engage their opponents in fatal skirmishes. Distinctions between reality and fiction collapse as both costumed and “real-life” characters in the film are killed. The filming and the creation of the costumes for A Game of Chess were carried out in Guadalajara, Mexico, and the influence of local crafts and religious traditions can also be felt throughout this body of work. Published on the occasion of Dzama's sixth solo exhibition at David Zwirner, this charming and affordable artist's book is packed with full-bleed drawings, sculptures, dioramas and film and production stills that give vivid testimony to the craft and thoroughness of his immensely popular art. show less

An unusual, wacky, obscure and completely bizarre body of work, drawn in a 1940s influenced figurative poster style; this is the subtly off-set art of Marcel Dzama. This catalogue accompanying an exhibition at the Rizziero Arte Gallery consists of two sections – drawings on thick mat Naples yellow paper, and cartoon-like sketches (with much more text around the drawings) printed on quality mat laminated paper. Each section could be the beginning of the book (turn it over to start from the show more other end). show less

In exhibitions throughout the Americas and Europe, Canadian artist Marcel Dzama's quirky humor has garnered a fan club of admirers. With a grab-bag of characters representing everything from archetypal innocents to reckless perverts, Dzama's drawings present skewed views of vaguely familiar situations filched from sources like The Wizard of Oz, The Grapes of Wrath and Inuit crafts.