May 8, 2020
“Beneath a pair of sienna-hued palm trees, four hooded women in polka-dotted capes stand by the edge of a pool in which a lone child sits, fully clothed. With upturned hands, he creates a swirl of gentle ripples across the water’s surface. This watercolor drawing by Marcel Dzama, titled The pool near the ocean, 2020, is among several serene bayside dramas produced for an online presentation at David Zwirner. Each whimsical scene—inspired by the artist’s recent sojourns with his young son to Morocco and Mexico—is peopled with a host of carnivalesque characters, whose choreographed antics often fail to disrupt the tranquility of the boy’s isolated play.’’
Read the full review in Artforum
Image: Marcel Dzama, Tourists and monkey trainers on Jemaa el-Fnaa marketplace, 2018 (detail)