Marcel Dzama

Marcel Dzama
Marcel Dzama on set of a Spike Jonze film in 2010
Born	1974 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Field	Contemporary art

Marcel Dzama (born 1974 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) is a contemporary artist who lives and works in New York. His work has been exhibited internationally, in particular his ink and watercolor drawings.

Range of practice

Dzama also works extensively in sculpture, painting, collage, and film. The artist is also known for his intricately conceived dioramas and large scale polyptychs that draw from his talents across a range of media. Dzama works in multiple disciplines to bring his cast of human figures, animals, and imaginary hybrids to life, and has developed an international reputation and following for his art that depicts fanciful, anachronistic worlds. The artist is also known for his work with The Royal Art Lodge.^[1]

Dzama's work has been used on the covers of a number of albums, notably The Else by They Might Be Giants, Guero by Beck and Reconstruction Site by The Weakerthans. His costume designs can also be seen in music videos for both the Bob Dylan song "When the Deal Goes Down", the N.A.S.A. song "The People Tree" and the Department of Eagles song "No One Does It Like You", which he also co-directed. McSweeney's has published two collections of his work, The Berlin Years in 2003 (reprinted in 2006) and a follow-up, The Berliner Ensemble Thanks You All, in 2008.

Dzama received his BFA from the University of Manitoba. Since 1998, Dzama has been represented by David Zwirner in New York, at which he has had solo exhibitions.^[2]

Dzama Stories is a piece of music inspired by Marcel Dzama by composer Ed Bennett. It is music for amplified ensemble, electronics and improviser featuring Decibel and Paul Dunmall.

Exhibitions

Dzama has been the subject of recent solo exhibitions at the Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, Canada (2010) and Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany (2008). In 2006 he had an exhibition at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, England, which traveled to the Centre for Contemporary Art in Glasgow, Scotland.^[3]

Over the past decade, his work has been featured in numerous international exhibitions, including “Compass in Hand: Selections from The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection” at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2009); “Moby Dick” at CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2009); “Sobey Art Award Short List” at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (2009); "Wunderkammer: A Century of Curiosities" at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2008); "In Me / Out of Me" at P.S.1. Contemporary Art Center and Kunst-Werke, Berlin, Germany (2007). In 2006, he was included in the Whitney Biennial exhibition, “Down By Law: Day for Night” at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. In the late 1990s Dzama participated in the group exhibitions “Greetings from Winnipeg” at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, Minneapolis and “Contemporary American Realist Drawings, the Jalane and Richard Davidson Collection” at The Art Institute of Chicago (both 1999).

Collections

Dzama's work is in the collections of major museums and public institutions, including the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York, New York; the Bass Museum of Art, Miami, Florida; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas; Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, North Miami, Florida; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada and The Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, Rhode Island. Collectors of his work include Spike Jonze, Bennett Miller, Kevin Hearn,^[4] Brad Pitt, Jim Carrey,^[5] Drew Carey,^[6] Viggo Mortensen and Steve Martin.

References

1. ^ The Royal Art Lodge Bio
2. ^ Marcel Dzama at David Zwirner
3. ^ Ikon Gallery: Marcel Dzama: Tree with Roots
4. ^ Collector’s Series – the happy mediums Guest-Curated by Kevin Hearn
5. ^ Marcel Dzama: Canada's unlikely art star
6. ^ Winnipeg, Manitoba: Prairie Renaissance

External links

• Marcel Dzama at David Zwirner
• Selected Press at David Zwirner
• Marcel Dzama on Artnet
• Marcel Dzama: Aux mille tours at the MACM
• Marcel Dzama: Even the Ghost of the Past at Strand Bookstore
• The New York Times Magazine "Drawn to Trouble"
• NOW Magazine "Drawing power: Marcel Dzama"
• BBC Collective Video tour of show at Ikon Gallery, interview, image gallery
• BBC Imagine Exquisite corpse to which Dzama contributed

Persondata
Name	Dzama, Marcel
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Date of birth	1974
Place of birth	Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Date of death
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