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I’ve never really felt certain in the way things begin or end. It mostly exists in its own time and logic. More like a vision.
—Harmony Korine
Gagosian Davies Street is pleased to present Harmony Korine’s new “fazor” paintings.
“Fazor” alludes to the “phaser effect”: a musical swirl of oscillating sound that summons the hypno-psychedelic effects informing Korine’s latest series of paintings. The large-scale, concentric circles that characterize this series expand upon the line and checker paintings in their embrace of vibrant color combinations. Inspired by sun motifs from the 1960s and ’70s, the series conjures the Color Field paintings of Helen Frankenthaler, as well as the color spectrums of Robert Delaunay’s Rhythm painting series. A combination of oilstick, acrylic, and house paint is applied to canvas or, in certain cases, reclaimed artworks from Korine’s prior abstract series. The rings of each orb resemble the ripple effect, fanning out from a ten-sided star in the middle of each composition. The paintings also reveal improvisational marks, fingerprints, and inadvertent mistakes. Korine riffs on each work impulsively and embraces the physical vigor of repetition and pattern on a grand scale.
The Fazors oblige by the odd bliss of sensory assault; there is no beginning and no end to their effects. Like a tapestry at a head shop, a blazing star from MAD magazine, or a Bridget Riley optical trance, these paintings thrive on surface tension. In Korine’s figurative works, characters disappear and reemerge from a groundless terrain. Lurking ghosts and devilish characters fuse with dizzying loops at hyperspeed. Like Philip Guston’s fleshy abstractions, they are animated by his loose touch. Together, the Fazors describe a world that expands and contracts like processed sound—the dream merges with the nightmare to envelop the viewer in the shimmer of the absurd.
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In Conversation
Harmony Korine and Rita Ackermann
The artists chat about Korine’s luminous new paintings based on teddy bears, touching upon the color yellow, the fresh smell of gas, and the relationship among presidents, golf, and little stuffed animals.
Fashion and Art: Proenza Schouler
Derek Blasberg speaks with Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough, the designers behind the New York fashion brand Proenza Schouler, about their influences and collaborations, from Mark Rothko to Harmony Korine.
Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Spring 2020
The Spring 2020 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Cindy Sherman’s Untitled #412 (2003) on its cover.
Transcendent Criminal Dream
From Kids to his new film The Beach Bum, Harmony Korine has continually revolutionized the art of cinema. In a wide-ranging discussion with film critic Emmanuel Burdeau, Korine reflects on the rewards and challenges of filmmaking and reveals what’s in store for the future.
Harmony Korine: BLOCKBUSTER
The artist discusses his latest exhibition in New York with the Gagosian Quarterly, telling the story behind the works and their connection to his larger practice.
Harmony Korine at the Centre Pompidou
The artist sat down with Alicia Knock, curator of his exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, to discuss the power of mistakes, outsiders, and the marginal.
