Copperfield’s Sequence of Optics (2016), 8 1/2 x 11 x 1/2 inches, graphite, crayon, colored pencil, acrylic, and collage on paper. Courtesy of G Fine Art..
Opening: Saturday, April 23 from 6pm to 8pm
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G Fine Art announces Debate Stage Water Bottles, an exhibition of new drawings by Deb Sokolow. Works on view feature pithy, hand-written texts, which describe the humorous gaffes, shadowy strategies, and clandestine details of various unnamed U.S. presidential candidates and campaigns.
The following scenario provides a glimpse into Sokolow’s droll political fantasies:
The infamous dinner party for several of the presidential candidates… at which an uncomfortable situation arose when a steaming bowl of buttered noodles could not make its way around the table due to the refusal of one candidate to pass the bowl along. “I don’t pass food. I don’t. The media will want me to apologize for this, and I won’t.”
In Debate Stage Water Bottles, Sokolow juxtaposes text alongside architectural schematics of various campaign environments including: debate stages, hotel rooms, diners, and anonymous carpeted rooms and hallways. While some of the texts are fictional, several are loosely based on presidential candidacies.
Drawings in Debate Stage Water Bottles elaborate on works featured in Some Concerns About the Candidate, a 2013 installation of Sokolow’s drawings and books at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut. In Some Concerns About the Candidate, an anonymous campaign worker details the questionable tactics of a cult-like figure’s campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives. With Debate Stage Water Bottles, Sokolow continues her investigation of the absurd and hilarious characters who populate American politics. As the presidential campaign circus continues, we invite you to visit the gallery and enjoy Sokolow’s witty aesthetic.
Deb Sokolow is a Chicago-based artist and writer. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at the Drawing Center in New York City, Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen in Siegen, Germany, Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, Netherlands, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, PA, among other venues. In 2013, Sokolow participated in the 4th Athens Biennale in Athens, Greece. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Western Exhibitions in Chicago, IL, the Abrons Art Center in New York City, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, IL, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, KS, the Institute of Visual Arts in Milwaukee, WI, and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, CT. This past summer, a series of Sokolow’s works were included in Drawing, a group show at G Fine Art.
Sokolow’s exhibition, Some Concerns About the Candidate, was reviewed in the New York Times. Her work has been reproduced for Creative Time’s “Comics” project and the Swedish art magazine, Paletten. Sokolow was featured in Vitamin D2: New Perspectives in Drawing, a survey of contemporary drawing published by Phaidon in 2013. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, CT, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in Scottsdale, AZ, the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction in Bloomington, IN, and the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Sokolow is the recipient of an Artadia award, and has participated in artist’s residencies at Art Omi in Ghent, NY and the Nordic Artists’ Centre in Dale, Norway. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2004).
Gallery Hours:
- Thursday – Saturday: 12pm-5pm
- and by appointment
G Fine Art is located at 4718 14th Street NW.
