Adam McEwen
My Mistake
April 8 – 29, 2006
Opening reception: Saturday, April 8th, 6-9 pm
The Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco is pleased to present the first West Coast solo exhibition of the work of New York-based artist Adam McEwen, which will include paintinengs, photographs and installation.
Adam McEwen is known for his work in which he references and subverts the often overlooked or tuned-out symbols and icons of everyday and pop culture. As described in the Whitney Biennial 2006 catalogue (by whom?), he utilizes “a series of interventions that jolt us temporarily out of our indifference, owing to over-exposure, toward the signs that dominate our daily lives…McEwen excavates our obsession, in a tabloid-dominated culture.” He often plays with the recognizable graphic styles of “Sorry We Are Closed” window signs or the large-scale “sale” type banners found at car dealerships, subtly changing the message or wording which may go unnoticed, due to their visual familiarity. With a similar approach, McEwen exploits the form of the obituary by inserting and essentially killing living celebrities through the act of printing their obituary (as a continuation of or reference to the typical newspaper practice of writing and updating obituaries for celebrities prior to their deaths.)
Adam McEwen’s work has been exhibited in one-person shows, most recently, at Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, New York and previously at Alessandra Bonomo Gallery, Rome and the Wrong Gallery, New York. His work has been featured in group exhibitions at Dicksmith Gallery in London, Bortolami Dayan, PS1 Contemporary Art Museum, White Columns, and Gavin Brown’s Enterprise in New York, and at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art in San Francisco, among others. His work is also currently included in the 2006 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.