Spencer Sweeney

Gagosian is pleased to present new paintings and works on paper by Spencer Sweeney, in his first exhibition with the gallery in Paris.

Working in an energetic style that is at once playful and primal, Sweeney balances chaotic strokes of pigment with calculated repetitions of silhouettes and motifs. At the center of this exhibition is a trio of Sweeney’s acrylic, charcoal, and oil bar paintings that fill the gallery walls from floor to ceiling, constituting the most recent installments in his ongoing series of figures in repose. With one arm resting atop a bent knee and the other propped up against the ground, these humanoid forms reference the ubiquitous reclining nude from Western art history.

The image of the reclining body recurs throughout the exhibition, appearing in numerous color combinations and physical orientations across Sweeney’s mixed-media drawings—endless variations on a corporeal theme. Featuring a dazzling array of hues, these raucous works incorporate elements of the fantastic: legs morph into snakelike S shapes; bodies become linear arrangements of triangles and zigzags.