Booth A5
For the 2022 edition of Frieze Seoul, Petzel is pleased to present a selection of new works by artist Derek Fordjour inspired by recent mass shootings, including the Buffalo supermarket massacre and the tragic school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Fordjour’s paintings are in-depth examinations of the widespread societal anxiety that has overtaken communities wherein places of shelter can no longer be considered safe. In an instant, schools, hospitals, churches and grocery stores become backdrops for devastating gun violence. Though not meant to capture the specific likeness of any actual victims, Fordjour’s new paintings confront us with the urgency and undeniable reality of the events that have become all too commonplace.
In his signature style, both highly textured and colorfully vivid, we witness Fordjour process the absurdity and shock of these news stories—the painting “Fire Drill” considers an elementary school teacher whose classroom fatally becomes a theater of a one-sided war in which children are under attack and her world goes topsy-turvy. Fordjour presents us with scenes that, though deceptively jovial at first glance, give way to the reality of the anxiety that has become so normalized in the daily lives of citizens of the United States. Figures are thrust into the ill-fated performance that appears to vacillate between dancing and dodging weapons. “Cake Man” considers the Buffalo man who was gunned down while shopping for a birthday cake for his three-year-old son. The single figure compositions are juxtaposed with the monumental canvas, “The Great Tradition”, which situates a family of hunters in a serene expanse of nature. Inspired by a recent trip to Bass Pro Shops in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, Fordjour encountered a hunting archive, which, for him, further complicates the gun debate. For many Americans, the love of artillery is deeply rooted in family traditions and personal beliefs. The intersection of cultural values, politics, vulnerability and human performativity underscore this body of work and expand his artistic inquiry.
Derek Fordjour was born in 1974 in Memphis, Tennessee to parents of Ghanaian heritage. He earned a BA at Morehouse College before receiving an MEd in Arts Education at Harvard University and an MFA in painting at Hunter College. He was recently appointed the Alex Katz Chair at Cooper Union and serves as a Core Critic at the Yale School of Art. He was named the 2016 Sugarhill Museum Artist-in-Residence and the 2018 Deutsche Bank NYFA Fellow.
Recently one-person exhibitions were held at the Pond Society, Shanghai; Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis; and Petzel Gallery, New York. His work is included in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum; Dallas Museum of Art; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Pérez Art Museum Miami; The Studio Museum of Harlem, New York; and Whitney Museum, New York among others. The Metropolitan Transit Authority of New York commissioned Fordjour to create a series of mosaics for Manhattan’s 145th Street subway station which were unveiled in 2018.