Chris Ofili Reviewed in Artforum

Chris Ofili presented the ten oil paintings composing “Joyful Sorrow,” his first solo show in Paris, behind individual black-on-black screen-printed curtains. Confronted with these mysterious veils and equipped with black gloves provided at the gallery’s front desk, viewers saw the show by lifting one shroud at a time–performing an intimate act that stimulated the senses and the subconscious all at once. Ofili has long been interested in prolonging or complicating the viewer’s experience, and, in this case, the exercise began even before the first veil was lifted. On each silk cloth, a ghostly apparition–a photographic self-portrait, eyes closed–slowly revealed itself, flickering into view only at close proximity and from certain angles. The works’ black frames, made of charred wood, were carved with elongated bas-relief figures–also intelligible only from up close–as well as the words VENICE and OFILI in looping script. Like mini prosceniums, the dark frames and curtains set the stage for Ofili’s response to Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice.

Read more at Artforum.