Artist Spotlight
Applying the term “mistakism” to his combination of wayward aesthetics and non sequitur wit, Miami-based artist and filmmaker Harmony Korine fuses backwoods surrealism with narcotic abstraction to conjure a perverse, disorienting vision. His paintings and mixed-media works incorporate materials such as leftover household emulsion and old videotapes in designs that reflect on memory and emotion. Ranging from swirling psychedelic grids to hand-painted figuration, Korine’s artworks mirror the deliberate confusion of staging and improvisation that characterizes his films, presenting images united by their hypnotic restlessness.
Launched in 2020, Artist Spotlight is presented once a month as a regular part of the gallery’s programming. Each Artist Spotlight highlights a work by an individual artist—made available exclusively online for forty-eight hours—together with new editorial features and selected archival content.
Artist Spotlight: Harmony Korine features a new painting by the artist, drawing from his childhood memories and wild personal cosmology. For more information, please contact the gallery at collecting@gagosian.com.
#GagosianSpotlight
Photo: Sarah Lee/eyevine/Redux
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Related Exhibitions
Related News
Online Reading
Harmony Korine
Harmony Korine is available for online reading from March 16 through April 15 as part of Artist Spotlight: Harmony Korine. Published by Rizzoli in association with Gagosian and Centre Pompidou, Paris, this is the first comprehensive monograph on the cinema, art, writing, and creative world of Korine, the boundary-breaking auteur of Kids (1995), Gummo (1997), Mister Lonely (2007), and Spring Breakers (2012). An interview by film critic Emmanuel Burdeau and an extensive multipart essay by curator Alicia Knock trace common themes through Korine’s films and artworks, considering the ways in which he has captured the surreal quality of contemporary life.
Harmony Korine (New York: Rizzoli International Publications; Paris: Gagosian and Centre Pompidou, 2018)
Exhibition
Harmony Korine
Wormburner
August 3–September 7, 2021
The Bridge, Bridgehampton, New York
This exhibition features new paintings by Harmony Korine depicting American presidents in the act of playing golf, a strangely quintessential presidential activity. Each painting is sourced from an archival photograph, which Korine repaints, either in black and white or full color, thereby transforming the original expressions and gestures into almost exaggerated versions of themselves. He then adds ribbons of color that dance across each composition with childlike irreverence, enhancing the paintings’ tragicomic impression while adding a tinge of absurdity.
Harmony Korine, 37, 2019–21 © Harmony Korine
Screening and Talk
Harmony Korine
Jerry Schatzberg
Sunday, November 3, 2019, 7:15–9:45pm
Metrograph, New York
www.metrograph.com
The gallery will present Jerry Schatzberg’s 1973 feature film Scarecrow, starring Gene Hackman and Al Pacino, at Metrograph, New York. Following the screening, Schatzberg and Harmony Korine will discuss the film, their influences, and the role of humor in their varied practices, in a conversation moderated by Carlos Valladares. Valladares recently wrote on Schatzberg’s prolific career in the Winter 2019 issue of the Gagosian Quarterly and Korine is curating an exhibition of works by H. R. Giger and Mark Prent opening at Gagosian, Park & 75, New York, on November 5. The event has reached capacity.
Jerry Schatzberg, Scarecrow, 1973 (still). Photo: courtesy Jerry Schatzberg Archive
Museum Exhibitions
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Reflections
Matt Black × Gana Art
November 1, 2019–January 5, 2020
Gana Art Center and Gana Art Hannam, Seoul
ganaart.com
In collaboration with filmmaker Matt Black, this exhibition is centered around his short film series titled Reflections, which features conversations with contemporary artists. Through his interviews, Black paints a picture of the rapidly changing contemporary art scene, revealing the stories behind the artworks. Following the film’s theme, Gana Art has curated this exhibition to feature works by these artists, which include Dan Colen, Rachel Feinstein, Jeff Koons, Harmony Korine, Sterling Ruby, Taryn Simon, and Blair Thurman, among others.
Installation view, Reflections: Matt Black × Gana Art, Gana Art Center and Gana Art Hannam, Seoul, November 1, 2019–January 5, 2020. Artwork © Sterling Ruby
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Harmony Korine
October 6–November 5, 2017
Centre Pompidou, Paris
www.centrepompidou.fr
A retrospective on the cinema, art, and creative world of Harmony Korine. The show gathers together many of his most significant projects, spanning film, writing, and art. Korine’s creative practice extends to photography and drawing as well as to figurative and abstract painting.
Installation view, Harmony Korine, Centre Pompidou, Paris, October 6–November 5, 2017. Artwork © Harmony Korine. Photo: Zarko Vijatovic
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Harmony Korine
Shadows and Loops
November 4, 2016–January 16, 2017
Frist Art Museum, Nashville, Tennessee
fristartmuseum.org
This exhibition of work by Harmony Korine includes both figurative and abstract paintings. With their crude figures, rough surfaces, and distorted patterns, Korine’s paintings emphasize expression over nuance and instability over clarity.
Harmony Korine, Burst Manga, 2014 © Harmony Korine. Photo: Rob McKeever