Marcel Dzama (b. 1974), Waiting on Tom’s ghost, 2023, pearlescent acrylic, ink, watercolour, and graphite on paper, 36.8 x 36.2 cm, courtesy the artist and David Zwirner. © Marcel Dzama.
Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art is pleased to present:
Ghosts of Canoe Lake
A solo exhibition by Marcel Dzama
November 22, 2024 – March 8, 2025
Opening Reception | Friday, November 22, 2024, 8 – 10pm
Live Chat with Wayne Baerwaldt, Marcel Dzama, Guy Maddin, Alison Norlen & moderated by Robert Enright | Saturday, November 23, 2024, 2pm
Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art is thrilled to announce Ghosts of Canoe Lake, an exhibition of new work by Marcel Dzama.
Marcel Dzama is one of Canada’s most intriguing expatriates, an artist who works in myriad media to express his fantastical and sometimes unsettling vision. Originally from Winnipeg, where he entered the art world as a founder of the famous Royal Art Lodge (once dubbed the new Group of Seven by a zealous journalist), Dzama moved to New York in 2004, continuing a career that has become increasingly international in scope.
This exhibition marks Dzama’s return to the Canadian museum scene after more than a decade with a new body of work inspired by the occasion. Here the artist revisits themes of landscape drawn from Canadian art history and his own memories of a childhood spent in the wilds of Manitoba and northern Saskatchewan—all while confronting a natural world threatened by climate change. Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven come in for special attention, as Dzama plays with the legacies of the landscape painters who came before him.
This exhibition was organized and circulated by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in partnership with Contemporary Calgary.
Marcel Dzama was born in 1974 in Winnipeg, Canada, where he received his BFA in 1997 from the University of Manitoba. Since 1998, his work has been represented by David Zwirner. The artist has had fourteen solo exhibitions with the gallery and has exhibited widely in solo and group presentations throughout the United States and abroad. Since rising to prominence in the late 1990s, Dzama has developed an immediately recognizable visual language that investigates human action and motivation, as well as the blurred relationship between the real and the subconscious. Drawing equally from folk vernacular as from art-historical and contemporary influences, Dzama’s work visualizes a universe of childhood fantasies and otherworldly fairy tales. Work by the artist is held in museum collections worldwide, including the Dallas Museum of Art; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate, London; and the Vancouver Art Gallery. Dzama lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Acknowledgments
We are on Treaty 1 Territory. Plug In ICA is located on the territories of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and the National homeland of the Red River Métis. Our water is sourced from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation.
Plug In ICA gratefully acknowledges the generous support of Michael Nesbitt.
Plug In ICA extends our heartfelt gratitude to our generous donors, valued members, and dedicated volunteers. We acknowledge the sustaining support of our Director’s Circle. You all make a difference.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Canada Council, the Manitoba Arts Council and Winnipeg Arts Council. We could not operate without their continued financial investment and lobbying efforts.
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