Michael Werner Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Enrico David. This is the artist's second exhibition with Michael Werner Gallery and his first exhibition in London since the Turner Prize in 2009.
Enrico David's contemporary surrealism challenges our reliance on language and its attendant need for reasoned apprehension. David's practice deftly employs a range of materials and techniques - painting, sculpture and various other traditions of handicraft, always rooted in drawing - to make tangible a body in perpetual metamorphosis. The disembodied personae populating the artist's oeuvre exist in an unsettling state of liminality, emerging with reluctance and uncertainty: heads protrude inappropriately from constructions resembling furniture, limbs extend into ornamentation, bodies dissolve into abstraction. Anthropomorphism is the leitmotif of David's work. His incongruous imagery evokes Surrealism's bizarre narratives while subtly questioning modernism's tendency toward abstraction.
Enrico David first gained critical acclaim for grotesque and highly abstracted portraits wrought with a cool ornamental detachment. His style drew on the language of modernism mediated through a decidedly non-traditional process of making which referenced performance, theatrical display and folk art. In the artist's forthcoming exhibition at Michael Werner Gallery - which includes new monumental paintings and several bronze sculptures - David deepens his exploration of the ineffable will to realise concrete form in the face of contingency and doubt.
Enrico David was born in Ancona, Italy and studied at Central Saint Martin's in London. He has exhibited in galleries and museums throughout Europe and the United States. Earlier this year the artist presented a solo project at the UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. He has been the subject of numerous solo museum exhibitions including Head Gas, New Museum, New York (2011); Repertorio Ornamentale, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice (2011); How Do You Love Dzzzzt by Mammy?, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel (2009); Bulbous Marauder, Seattle Art Museum (2008); and Ultra Paste, ICA London (2007). David was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2009. His work is currently included in The Encyclopedic Palace, the 55th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. Enrico David currently lives and works in London.
Enrico David opens at Michael Werner Gallery in London 17 September and remains on view through 16 November. A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies this exhibition. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10AM to 6PM. For more information please call the gallery, email press@michaelwerner.com or visit michaelwerner.com.