Marcel Dzama: Puppets, Pawns, and Prophets

Marcel Dzama is known for his prolific drawings, which are characterized by their distinctive palette and subject matter. He has recently expanded his practice to encompass film and three-dimensional works, thus developing an immediately recognizable language that draws from a diverse range of references and artistic influences, including Dada and Marcel Duchamp. Created in close collaboration with the artist, this publication presents his 2013 exhibition at David Zwirner in London, which included videos inspired by the game of chess and puppets and masks based on the characters, along with drawings, collages, dioramas, paintings, and sculptural works. Dzama utilized the architecture of the gallery itself ― an eighteenth-century Georgian townhouse ― by hanging puppets from a skylight above the five-story building’s central spiral staircase and placing monitors in the windows so that his videos could be viewed from the street.