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The Descent of Men

March 13, 2008- April 12, 2008

Reception: March 13, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Vernon Fisher

Charles Cowles Gallery

537 W 24th St

The Charles Cowles Gallery is pleased to announce its solo exhibition of work by artist Vernon Fisher. Using Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness, as the thematic backdrop to the new body of work, The Descent of Man shows Fisher's ability to combine his wry visual wit with playful turns of language in order to expose serious subject matter. In this case, it is the current state of globalized culture to which Fisher directs his attention.

These layered compositions begin with a magnified section of a colonial map of central-Western Africa upon which the artist paints any number of images referencing pop culture (a pixelized Mickey Mouse makes an appearance), war, stereotypical icons of Africa (elephants, monkeys, Tarzan), or death. Much like his previously exhibited “blackboard” paintings, each canvas in The Descent of Man is punctuated by a monochromatic vignette of for example, someone swimming or diving in water; scenes of nostalgic serenity that serve as moments of respite from the profusion of various signs and symbols that serve as totems of a harsh global reality. Furthermore, these paintings are meditations on the processes of memory and how the human mind organizes and interprets visual signs and symbols. Fisher highlights how tenuous this process can be as amassed collections of information vie for supremacy in both the individual and the collective unconsciousnesses.

Fisher's works are in distinguished museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA.

Books and DVDs related to artists in this show

Location   Gallery Charles Cowles Gallery Address 537 W 24th St New York (Chelsea) NY, 10011 United States Phone 212-741-8999 Fax 212-741-6222 Hours Tue-Sat 10-6

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