Gagosian presents a exhibition in Hong Kong by British artist Adam McEwen, who is based in New York, showcasing a series of his works including new paintings and graphite sculptures. This marks his first solo exhibition in Asia following his shows at Gagosian London and Rome spaces last year, and it opened on February 2nd. McEwen’s work tends to highlight and individually consider mundane objects like a yoga mat, water cooler, plastic cup, stripping them of their familiar and comforting meanings. His sculptures made of graphite or cast iron are straightforward, precise, giving off a sense of strangeness and subtle dislocation. His recent paintings present everyday objects in a similar simplified graphic language, decontextualizing them and freeing them from their usual meanings.
The choice of these themes has no particular reason, but for Adam McEwen, they seem to hold some significance: a railway arch near his studio, a lion painting symbolizing power and strength, a pair of street lamps near Grand Central Station, and a sword he found hidden behind a radiator while renovating his apartment. By simplifying their imagery, these themes become more approachable, and the relationship between the themes and the audience becomes more solid and dynamic compared to their original everyday meanings.
Adam McEwen was born in 1965 in London and currently lives and works in New York. His collections include the London Arts Council Collection, the Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum in Scotland, the Julia Stoschek Collection in Dusseldorf, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Greenwich Branch Art Research Center in Connecticut, the Collins Art Museum in Winter Park, Florida, the de la Cruz Collection in Miami, the Rubell Museum in Miami, and the umex Museum in Mexico City. His exhibitions include the Dallas Goss-Michael Foundation (2012); the Museo Diocesano in Pietrasanta, Italy (2015); the Aspen Art Museum in Colorado, “I Think I’m in Love” (2017); and Lever House in New York, “Feels Like 2J” (2019).
