ASPEN, CO.- Marianne Boesky Gallery, in conjunction with artist Donald Moffett, is showing Aluminum / White House Unmoored, 2004. The work is on view in the second floor gallery space from July 2 through September 13, 2020, at Marianne Boesky’s location in Aspen, Colorado. Additionally, Aluminum / White House Unmoored has been included in an online viewing room to supplement the exhibition, available to view on the gallery’s website.
Aluminum / White House Unmoored is the central work from Moffett’s “D.C.” series, in which the artist projected handheld video of the capital’s landmarks and symbols onto silver extruded oil painting – in this case, a flickering disembodied seat of ultimate power. Here, the White House’s familiar image takes on a haunting presence and surveillance-like appearance as it comes in and out of focus on the canvas. From the 1980s onward, Moffett emerged as a pioneering voice of art and activism, responding to the AIDS crisis with seminal works like He Kills Me, 1987 and Call the White House, 1990.
“Donald Moffett has a profound ability to shed light on the unsettling underbelly of politics and social issues,” says Marianne Boesky. “As we approach a landmark presidential election, made even more pivotal with the calls for accountability and transparency in positions of power, we felt it was an appropriate time to show again Moffett’s Aluminum / White House Unmoored and reflect on the current moment.”
New York-based artist Donald Moffett (b. 1955) emerged as both an artist and activist in the late 1980s, participating in the ACT UP movement and as a founding member of the collective Gran Fury. Dedicated to abstraction and the monochrome, Moffett challenges the traditional flat frame through non-traditional painting techniques, employing a private language of form that serves as a carrier for both personal and political meaning. Moffett often treats the canvas as a surrogate for the body, creating orifices by cutting and flaying or perforating the canvas. The resulting compositions are provocative and poetic, hinting at playfulness, all the while serving as an implicit form of social critique.
