People Who Work There

The iconic American artist Sol LeWitt once worked at the book counter of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in the 1960s. It was there that he met his coworkers Dan Flavin and Lucy Lippard, and where Jeff Koons would begin working the ticket booth in the following decade. To fund his early art practice, Richard Serra started an art installation and furniture-moving business, working with assistant Philip Glass. And gallerist Betty Parsons, once best known for her promotion of abstract expressionism, has been rediscovered as a talented painter in her own right. Many artists who have worked within museums and arts institutions have gone on to make art history.

Held at David Zwirner in 2012 and 2016, the exhibition series People Who Work Here was dedicated to showcasing works by artists who also work at the gallery. Inspired by this tradition, Mary Howard and Alec Smyth, both members of David

Zwirner’s sales team, have organized an exhibition titled People Who Work There at the second-floor Brooklyn gallery cfcp. The exhibition features works by twenty-eight artists who are currently on staff at David Zwirner.

People Who Work There brings together multifaceted works across a vast range of media, including drawing, photography, printmaking, video, painting, sculpture, and installation. David Zwirner’s latest Online Viewing Room is presented in conjunction with People Who Work There. This online exhibition features a selection of available works by artists who work in various departments at the gallery, including sales, press, finance, and operations. A number of works shown here are also on view in the exhibition at cfcp.

All proceeds from this Viewing Room directly benefit the artists and cfcp.

Inquire about works from this Viewing Room

Katherine Page

Transmission Tower, 2014

Oil on canvas

60 x 36 inches (152.4 x 91.4 cm)

Jay Pluck

untitled, hand-painted wallpaper installation, 2019

Acrylic, gouache, ink, and wheat paste on paper

Installation dimensions variable

Installation view, People Who Work There, cfcp, New York, 2019. Photo courtesy of Object Studies

Clive Murphy

Inflatable Cardboard Box (After Raymond Pettibon), 2018-2019

Deconstructed cardboard, vinyl, wood, rubber valve, and air

18 3/4 x 19 1/4 x 12 3/8 inches (47.6 x 48.9 x 31.4 cm)

Rebecca Holmberg

2 girls 1 cup, 2016

Oil on canvas

37 x 37 inches (94 x 94 cm)

Erika Anderson

Study for August 12th, 2019

Watercolor on paper

6 x 8 inches (15.2 x 20.3 cm)

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138 JAGUAR E-TYPE SERIES I 4.2-LITRE ROADSTER, 1966, Chassis no. 1E11911. Engine no. 7E6555-9. Body no. 4E3351. As per Enzo Ferrari, ""The most beautiful car ever made"". One of the finest examples extant. Three-time 100-point JCNA National Champion. Matching numbers. “The body’s subtle, swelling curves and depressions reflect carefully calculated geometries based on the ellipse. The most prominent feature—the long, projecting hood—is modeled with a distinctive ‘power bulge’ that runs down the hood’s center to accommodate the powerful engine. Louvered air-intake panels penetrate the otherwise smooth surface. The hood curves down to a grille-less nose that sucks in air to cool the engine. The gently swelling fenders terminate in glass cowl headlights that are seamlessly encapsulated into the body. The view of the car’s contours is as compelling to the driver as to the passerby.” These are the words that the Museum of Modern Art in New York City uses to describe one of its larger acquisitions. The sculpture is described as having a “steel body: 47” x 64½” x 14′ 7½””It is a Jaguar E-Type Roadster that has been credited to Sir William Lyons, Malcolm Sayer, and William M. Heynes. Estimate $225,000 — 325,000. Art of the Automobile, SOTHEBY'S, New York, November 21, 2013. Sale Code: N09045, 2017

Oil on canvas

48 x 72 inches (121.9 x 182.9 cm)

Installation view, People Who Work There, cfcp, New York, 2019. Photo courtesy of Object Studies

“Sean Micka’s photorealistic paintings are based on print auction catalogue photographs, mainly from Christie’s and Sotheby’s, of fine antiques, jewelry, and luxury items. They depict spoons, ladles, diamonds, emeralds, furniture, timepieces, and automobiles. Painted with high fidelity to realism, Micka’s paintings become aesthetic objects of labor themselves, mapping out a paradoxical connection to the functions of authorship, and practices of collecting artifacts. They are close reproductions, or appropriations, of ready-made images.”

— Mary Howard

Jonathan Rodriguez

Backstage Drama, 2018

Oil on canvas

60 x 70 inches (152.4 x 177.8 cm)

Kyle Combs

Ganglia[09016058], 2018

3D-Printed PLA Plastic

13 1/4 x 13 x 11 inches (33.7 x 33 x 27.9 cm)

“Kyle Combs is one of the art handlers at the gallery. He typically works in audio, however this is one of the first sculptures that he's made. It's a 3D printed plastic, computer-generated algorithm that is self-perpetuating. Using a custom code, he generates auto-poietic, emergent forms.”

— Mary Howard

Kevin Mosca

The healing touch of a garment, 2018

Oil on canvas

22 1/4 x 17 inches (56.5 x 43.2 cm)

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untitled (atmosphere), 2016

Inkjet print on paper

Image: 14 3/8 x 11 1/4 inches (36.5 x 28.6 cm) Print: 16 5/8 x 11 3/4 inches (42.2 x 29.8 cm)

“Julian Louis Philips’ video, our mothers raised wolves but they saw dogs, takes footage from the 2018 US Tennis Open, and combines it with audio and video from various other times when black women were ridiculed or silenced while being placed in the media spotlight. Voices that are heard include Fannie Lou Hamer and Anita Hill. The music is Summertime by George Gershwin played at various speeds. The juxtaposition of time, sound, and imagery depicts the persistence of negative attitudes towards the black female voice.”

—Mary Howard

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our mothers raised wolves, and they saw dogs, 2019

Single channel video, 5:17 min

Overall dimensions vary with installation

Joanna Fiorentino

Untitled (Simone) , 2018

Linocut on paper

12 x 15 1/2 inches (30.5 x 39.4 cm)

Spike Blake

Pumpkin, 2018

Oil on birch plywood

7 1/8 x 7 1/8 inches (18 x 18 cm)

Danny Greenberg

Netting, 2014

Intaglio monoprint with embossment on paper

12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm) Framed: 15 1/8 x 12 1/4 x 7/8 inches (38.4 x 31.1 x 2.2 cm)

Joel Fennell

Untitled (to Ilhan Omar), 2019

Two (2) black light UV LED strips, two (2) transformers, snow camouflage netting, two (2) nails, polyester fabric, and wood stretcher

125 x 68 3/4 inches (317.5 x 174.6 cm)

People Who Work There co-curators Mary Howard, left, and Alec Smyth, right, cfcp, New York. Photo by Virginia Stroh

“This exhibition provided an opportunity for all of us to engage with each other outside the bounds of our everyday work life. It’s special to work in a company of over 200 employees, so many of whom are committed practicing artists. Putting this together felt like sort of an obvious thing to do, and as such it came together quite easily and beautifully.” — Alec Smyth

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Folly, 2018

Screenprint on paper

16 1/2 x 11 5/8 inches (41.9 x 29.5 cm)

Heather Jeremy

Penny for your thoughts, 2017

Oil pastel and ink on paper

14 x 11 inches (35.6 x 27.9 cm)

“Rhys Ziemba is an art handler at David Zwirner. This series, which he has been working on for several years in the basement of his studio, often includes things like traffic cones, paint buckets, cardboard boxes or colorful, abstract tarp. The work featured in this Online Viewing Room includes a pink flamingo, which is another object that he has been painting recently. He brings banal objects from work, or from the street and brings them to the studio to arrange them in different formations, bringing life to them in that process.”

— Alec Smyth

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a man and his dog 一个人和他的狗, 2015

Watercolor on paper

15 x 13 inches (38.1 x 33 cm)

17 Messidor CCXXVII, 2019

Oil on masonite

20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cm)

Haley Darya Parsa

Half Seen, 2018

Oil and photo transfer on canvas

48 1/8 x 30 1/8 inches (122.2 x 76.5 cm)

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Untitled, 2018

Inkjet print on rag paper

Image: 38 1/2 x 58 inches (97.8 x 147.3 cm)
Print: 40 x 60 1/4 inches (101.6 x 153 cm)

Alessandra Pearson

Interstitial, 2017

Ink on paper

12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)

Ali Rossi

BPC, 2018

Oil and oil stick on wood panel

60 x 17 1/8 inches (152.4 x 43.5 cm)

Attendees at the opening reception for People Who Work There, cfcp, New York. Photograph by Emma Macdonald

“The process of organizing the show was especially exciting because of the diversity of work that our colleagues are making. It ended up being a very interesting show to hang for that reason, and connections between practices were revealed which we didn’t initially see.”
—Mary Howard

Christopher Dunlap

RVR 002, 2018

Oil on canvas

24 1/8 x 18 inches (61.3 x 45.7 cm)

Jackie Furtado

i was carrying myself, 2017

Inkjet print on Sintra in artist's maple frame

Print: 10 3/4 x 13 3/4 inches (27.3 x 34.9 cm)
Framed: 11 1/2 x 14 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches (29.2 x 36.8 x 3.2 cm)

Portrait featuring artists exhibited in People Who Work There, New York. Photo by Virginia Stroh

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Untitled (Summer 2018) , 2018

Oil on wood panel

12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)

David McBride

Untitled (Ordinary Flowers) , 2019

Oil on MDF panel

23 x 19 1/8 inches (58.4 x 48.6 cm)

Participating Artists

Erika Anderson	Christopher Dunlap	David McBride	Julian Louis Phillips
Leslie Antell	Joel Fennell	Sean Micka	Jay Pluck
Lindsay Basile	Joanna Fiorentino	Kevin Mosca	Liam Richardson
Spike Blake	Jackie Furtado	Clive Murphy	Jonathan Rodriguez
Kyle Combs	Danny Greenberg	Katherine Page	Ali Rossi
Le Dai	Rebecca Holmberg	Haley Darya Parsa	Rhys Ziemba
Kim Davidson	Heather Jeremy	Alessandra Pearson

Visit The People Who Work There at cfcp through August 4 by appointment only.

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People Who Work There