Marcel Dzama: A Midsummer Nights Dream
Set in an enchanted forest, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the ideal subject for artist Marcel Dzama, whose work frequently references dreams, fairy tales, and mythical worlds.
Inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Shakespeare’s celebrated romantic comedy intertwines multiple narratives under the influence of transformation and witchcraft. The play is often staged with actors wearing animal masks, an aspect that appeals particularly to Dzama, whose work is characterized by the fusion of human and animal, fantasy and reality.
As the second title in David Zwirner Books’s Seeing Shakespeare series, this book revisits this ultimate fairy tale through the eyes of a contemporary artist who feels a special affinity for its imagery.
Panelist Event
TIME named Wolfgang Tillmans to the 2023 TIME100, its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Tony-nominated playwright Jeremy O. Harris was invited to write about the artist, stating “[...] Tillmans has the unique ability to take his viewer through histories and timelines both real and imagined, as seen in his recent traveling retrospective, To Look Without Fear.
Read a new poem from the artist, on the occasion of her solo exhibition in New York, I Spend Each Day Embracing Flowers.