NEW YORK, NY.- Petzel Gallery announced the representation of New York-based artist Derek Fordjour.
Derek Fordjour’s images draw upon a variety of sources, including sporting imagery, board and card games, carnival motifs, and the circus to explore ideas of vulnerability. He uses the economic, political and psychosocial implications of games to discuss the power structure that exists around rewards and sanctions, merit and punishment, for both the player within the game and as an allegory for the broader human experience. Team dynamics that evoke the tension of an individual situated within a collective effort convey the seductive sense of the risks and rewards that are inherent in the drama of both games and life.
“I was intrigued by Derek’s solo presentation with Josh Lilley Gallery at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2018, where he transformed the booth into an incredible environment with a gravel floor and his beautiful paintings mounted on corrugated iron walls,” says Friedrich Petzel. “The surface technique Derek was using where he cuts layers off his cardboard constructions and tears into these elegant figurines reminded me of decollage works. I felt I had never seen anything like it; paintings as animated as this and yet coherent with an American iconography that is very much of today.”
“The excellent record of artists and exhibitions at Petzel Gallery are a direct extension of Friedrich, his team and their collective passion for art,” Fordjour says. “I am delighted to join a group of artists that I have long admired and a program for which I have genuine respect. I'm excited for our show next fall. It's going to be special!"
Derek Fordjour was born in Memphis, Tennessee to parents of Ghanaian heritage. His work has been exhibited at Night Gallery, Los Angeles, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Josh Lilley Gallery, London, among other venues. He has received commissions for public projects from the Whitney Museum Billboard Project and from the Metropolitan Transit Authority of New York City, for a permanent installation at the 145th Street Subway Station in Manhattan. He was the 2016 Sugarhill Museum Artist in-Residence, a resident of the 2017 Sharpe Walentas Studio Program in New York City, and was awarded the 2018 Deutsche Bank NYFA Fellowship. He is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, earned a Master’s Degree in Art Education from Harvard University and an MFA in painting from Hunter College. Fordjour frequently serves as a lecturer at institutions and as a Core Critic at Yale University School of Art. His work is held in collections throughout the United States and Europe, including the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
In addition to Petzel, Fordjour is represented by Night Gallery, Los Angeles and Josh Lilley Gallery, London, where the artist will have a solo show in October 2019. Fordjour’s solo installation, SHELTER, opens at the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis in January 2020.
