GRIMM
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Artists
  • Exhibitions
  • Fairs
  • Viewing Rooms
  • Contact
Cart
0 items €
Checkout

Item added to cart

View cart & checkout
Continue shopping
Menu
Dave McDermott
West, GRIMM Keizersgracht 241, Amsterdam (NL), 15 May - 27 June 2020

Dave McDermott: West

Past exhibition
  • Overview
  • Works
  • Installation Views
  • Press
  • Press release
  • Video
  • Related content
Overview
Dave McDermott, West
View works

GRIMM is pleased to announce West, a new solo presentation by Dave McDermott at our Keizersgracht space in Amsterdam. This exhibition marks the artist’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery.

click here to enter the viewing room

Download Press Release
Works
  • Dave McDermott Fecundity, 2020 Oil, 23k gold, yarn on panel 63.5 x 53.3 cm | 25 x 21 in
    Dave McDermott
    Fecundity, 2020
    Oil, 23k gold, yarn on panel
    63.5 x 53.3 cm | 25 x 21 in
    Sold
  • Dave McDermott le Déjeuner (the Hermit and the Monk), 2020 Oil, oil stick, pigment, 23k gold, vinyl paint on panel Two panels. Each 121.9 x 91.4 cm | 48 x 36 in
    Dave McDermott
    le Déjeuner (the Hermit and the Monk), 2020
    Oil, oil stick, pigment, 23k gold, vinyl paint on panel
    Two panels. Each 121.9 x 91.4 cm | 48 x 36 in
    Sold
  • Dave McDermott le Flambeur, 2020 Oil, sizing lacquer, canvas board, yarn on panel 63.5 x 53.3 cm | 25 x 21 in
    Dave McDermott
    le Flambeur, 2020
    Oil, sizing lacquer, canvas board, yarn on panel
    63.5 x 53.3 cm | 25 x 21 in
  • Dave McDermott The Golden Apple, 2020 Oil, coloured pencil, canvas board, yarn on panel 63.5 x 53.3 cm | 25 x 21 in
    Dave McDermott
    The Golden Apple, 2020
    Oil, coloured pencil, canvas board, yarn on panel
    63.5 x 53.3 cm | 25 x 21 in
  • Dave McDermott Le jardin des Hespérides, 2020 Oil, wax, canvas board, shellac on panel 63.5 x 53.3 cm | 25 x 21 in
    Dave McDermott
    Le jardin des Hespérides, 2020
    Oil, wax, canvas board, shellac on panel
    63.5 x 53.3 cm | 25 x 21 in
    Reserved
  • Dave McDermott Man, 2020 Oil, wax, marine varnish, linen on panel 63.5 x 53.3 cm | 25 x 21 in
    Dave McDermott
    Man, 2020
    Oil, wax, marine varnish, linen on panel
    63.5 x 53.3 cm | 25 x 21 in
  • Dave McDermott The Fool, 2016-2020 Oil on panel 35.6 x 27.9 cm | 14 x 11 in
    Dave McDermott
    The Fool, 2016-2020
    Oil on panel
    35.6 x 27.9 cm | 14 x 11 in
  • Dave McDermott Untitled, 2016-2020 Oil, wax, yarn on panel 35.6 x 27.9 cm | 14 x 11 in
    Dave McDermott
    Untitled, 2016-2020
    Oil, wax, yarn on panel
    35.6 x 27.9 cm | 14 x 11 in
    Sold
  • Dave McDermott The Painting Lesson, 2016-2020 Oil, charcoal, linen, canvas, 23k gold on panel 35.6 x 27.9 x 5.1 cm | 14 x 11 x 2 in
    Dave McDermott
    The Painting Lesson, 2016-2020
    Oil, charcoal, linen, canvas, 23k gold on panel
    35.6 x 27.9 x 5.1 cm | 14 x 11 x 2 in
    Sold
  • Dave McDermott The Lotos Garden (Frau mit Korallen), 2020 Oil, 23k gold, yarn, Masonite on panel 63.5 x 53.3 cm | 25 x 21 in
    Dave McDermott
    The Lotos Garden (Frau mit Korallen), 2020
    Oil, 23k gold, yarn, Masonite on panel
    63.5 x 53.3 cm | 25 x 21 in
  • Dave McDermott Tot, 2020 Oil, canvas board, yarn on panel 63.5 x 53.3 cm | 25 x 21 in
    Dave McDermott
    Tot, 2020
    Oil, canvas board, yarn on panel
    63.5 x 53.3 cm | 25 x 21 in
  • Dave McDermott Mother of Pearl/Bungalow 1, 2020 Oil, colored pencil, canvas board, yarn on panel 63.5 x 53.3 cm | 25 x 21 in
    Dave McDermott
    Mother of Pearl/Bungalow 1, 2020
    Oil, colored pencil, canvas board, yarn on panel
    63.5 x 53.3 cm | 25 x 21 in
  • Dave McDermott The Wronged Woman, 2020 Oil, 23k gold, yarn, canvas board on panel 63.5 x 53.3 cm | 25 x 21 in
    Dave McDermott
    The Wronged Woman, 2020
    Oil, 23k gold, yarn, canvas board on panel
    63.5 x 53.3 cm | 25 x 21 in
    Sold
Installation Views
  • Dave Mcdermott West 2020 Grimm 00004
  • Dave Mcdermott West 2020 Grimm 00003
  • Dave Mcdermott West 2020 Grimm 00001
  • Dave Mcdermott West 2020 Grimm 00002
  • Dave Mcdermott West 2020 Grimm 00006
  • Dave Mcdermott West 2020 Grimm 00005
  • Dave Mcdermott West 2020 Grimm 00007
  • Dave Mcdermott West 2020 Grimm 00010
Press
  • 5 Must-See European Galleries Reopening with American Artists

    Art & Object, June 19, 2020
Press release
Dave McDermott, West
View works

Throughout my practice in general, I continue to be interested in the possibilities of the meta-allegorical in painting. Allegory being the relationship of a single symbol to a “thing symbolized”, I have always been interested in going beyond that and creating works where multiple symbols/ordering systems exist in the work simultaneously, all working together to require a certain balancing act of interpretation and discovery on the part of the viewer. In other words, the paintings themselves do not present the simple key of one to one translation that allegory does.

In my work, the meaning of the paintings is derived by the viewer holding all the various symbolic relationships present in the work in ones head, all at the same time.

I have emphasized this way of working in this show, modeling the overall physical structure of the exhibition on a sort of poetic interpretation of an alter-piece painting. I have carried over this structure of multiple works making up a whole, with one primary “central” panel (in this case the gold diptych), and multiple auxiliary panels to flush out the “story”. Both emphasize the importance of beauty and structure in the same way. The difference (beyond religious vs. secular) is that while an altarpiece historically was a didactic object of sorts, used to relate specific religious stories to the masses and reveal meaning, my work obfuscates rhetorical meaning in order to emphasize feeling, or “a vibe” as we call it.

The works in this show orbit around the mythology of going “West”. I come from the West, and I think its inherent qualities of openness, other-worldliness, awkwardness, strangeness, perversion, hedonism, desire, and indecipherability have always informed my work. I credit being raised in the West with my mindset as an artist, namely to avoid didactic and illustrative tendencies, and instead to aim for a transmission of feeling… more poetry than “point”.

Having now lived in New York for the better part of two decades, the West is simultaneously native and foreign to me, which now allows me to relate to the desire to go west, as well. The desire to head west has a long history in western culture, and particularly in America, and this history is often marked by a stark contradiction between expectation and reality. “The West” is seen as paradise, a garden of Eden, a place of rebirth, of new life and expanded prospects. But this hopeful prospect often goes sideways at some point along the way, and those seeking fecundity often find death. Whether this death is physical and final, or rather metaphorical, and thus a potential source of regeneration, is a never-ending question. In each case, it is unclear whether the story is really about end or origin, or if they are in fact the same thing. This obfuscation between beginning and end is where the show exists.

The works in this show take a variety of cultural references that I relate to this contradictory myth of the West as a starting point, and then reorder them with my own language. The Garden of the Hesperides, Joyce’s The Dead, Tennyson’s The Lotos-Eaters, the “not quite” idyllic paintings by Puvis de Chavannes, Manet, etc., as well as more recent, popular mythologies of the West, John Lennon’s Lost Weekend for example, his attempt to escape himself by leaving his life behind and heading to L.A., and of course the ubiquitous desires of every young person who heads to L.A. to “make it’, serve as armatures on which to build new images and ideas. Ultimately “West” means many things: it has an inherent ambiguity that mirrors my own way of working, and it’s that combination of openness, freedom, idyllic beauty, and unease that I’m emphasising in these works.

–Dave McDermott. Brooklyn, March, 2020

 

Download press release
Video
Related content
  • 5 Must-See European Galleries Reopening with American Artists Press

    5 Must-See European Galleries Reopening with American Artists

    Art & Object Jun 19, 2020
    Read more

Related artist

  • Dave McDermott

    Dave McDermott

Back to exhibitions

Van Baerlestraat 80

1071 BB, Amsterdam

The Netherlands

Keizersgracht 241

1016 EA, Amsterdam

The Netherlands

54 White Street

New York, 10013 NY

United States

Facebook, opens in a new tab.
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Join the mailing list
Vimeo, opens in a new tab.
© GRIMM, 2020
Site by Artlogic