Conversation 2: Marcel Dzama & Alice Shaw

Curator. San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries: Main Gallery. February - April 2006

Conversations is in an ongoing series of two-person exhibitions that explore the relationship between an artist from the Bay Area and an artist from another point on the globe. The intent of this series is two-fold: on an intimate level it allows for a closer look at the production of two individual artists, while it also informs an expansive perspective of how artists from our region relate to an international contemporary art dialogue.

In the South Gallery, we will be presenting the drawings of Marcel Dzama. In 2004 Dzama relocated to New York, but hails from Winnipeg where he was a founding member of the Royal Art Lodge, an artists’ collective that creates drawings, videos, and performances. In 2000, Dzama was presented with the New Artist Award by Art Cologne. Dzama is represented by Richard Heller Gallery in Los Angeles and David Zwirner Gallery in New York, and he has exhibited his drawing in museums and galleries across the globe. He is perhaps most widely known for creating the cover art for Beck’s 2005 release Guero, and his 2003 collaboration with They Might Be Giants on a collection of stories and songs called, Bed, Bed, Bed. Dzama has connections to San Francisco through two different avenues. In 2003 McSweeney’s published his critically acclaimed book The Berlin Years, while the Kid Robot store features Dzama’s Uzama Action Figures that make up the Monsters of Winnipeg Folklore series.

Exhibiting in the North Gallery is renowned San Francisco photographer Alice Shaw. Shaw’s signature snapshot style of photography yields images that are at once humble and remarkable. Her work focuses on the uncanny nature of everyday gestures and location, bringing into focus a frank and sometimes humorous perspective on what we value and how we spend our time. She will be presenting a slide show of images with an original soundtrack by her brother, musician Virgil Shaw. 

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