David Wojnarowicz (1954-1992) was among the most incisive and prolific American artists of the 1980s and 90s. In addition to a selection of iconic photographic works, P.P.O.W will present Mortality 1988, a mixed-media painting depicting an elephant trainer standing on the back of an elephant that is crossing a body of water. Painted on sheet music, the central image is surrounded by a vascular network of lines that connects an anatomical heart to sprouting leaves and a single flower. In many of Wojnarowicz’s paintings, you will see the depictions of these red veins and green vines as they create a border in which to discuss our connection with nature. Of his use of natural imagery with the looming threat of humans and the man-made, Wojnarowicz has said “Rather than seeing ourselves as part of the world we have created a sense of removal i.e. ‘this is human, that is nature.’ I like to take that power away from humans in terms of images and transfer them to animals. Let the images of the animals convey fear, aggression, life, emotions. It’s a psychological transfer of power.” David Wojnarowicz’s work has been exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The American Center, Paris, France; The Busan Museum of Modern Art, Korea; Centro Galego de Art Contemporanea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain; The Barbican Art Gallery, London; and the Museum Ludwig, Cologne. His work is in permanent collections of major museums nationally and internationally and his life and work have been the subject of significant scholarly studies. Wojnarowicz has had retrospectives at the galleries of the Illinois State University, curated by Barry Blinderman (1990) and at the New Museum, curated by Dan Cameron (1999). A third retrospective, David Wojnarowicz: History Keeps Me Awake at Night, co-curated by David Kiehl and David Breslin, opened at the Whitney Museum of American Art in July 2018. The widely acclaimed exhibition has been reviewed in Artforum, The Guardian, The New York Times and The New Yorker, among others. The retrospective will travel to the Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid in May 2019 and the Musee d/Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg City in November 2019. A concurrent exhibition of Wojnarowicz’s films and photographs will open at the KW Berlin in February 2019.
