Dave McKenzie
(born 1977, Kingston, Jamaica; lives and works in Brooklyn, New York)
Dave McKenzie is a conceptual artist working in performance, photography, and video. In two of his early video works featured in this exhibition, McKenzie inserts himself into the framework of popular culture. Edward and Me (2000) features the artist engaged in a series of charismatic and frenetic movements in front of a grocery store. Its title refers to a scene in the movie Fight Club (1999) in which Edward Norton, who plays a character with dissociated personalities, beats and bloodies himself in a way that is both out-of-control and contained. Similarly, Kevin and Me (2000) references Kevin Spacey’s role in The Usual Suspects (1995), a thriller in which the actor plays a con artist with numerous names and fake identities. In both works, McKenzie uses his own body as a primary tool of expression, using it to act out the mind’s interior workings and as the conduit of multiple personae. In a more recent work, While Supplies Last (2003), the artist replicates his likeness in the form of miniature bobble-head sculptures. Donning a paper-maché head, he then distributes these sculptures to the public attending his exhibition’s opening reception. While Supplies Last suggests that the artist’s likeness could be traded away much like an inexpensive bobble head doll–raising questions about exchange, commodification and the mass production of the self.
Biography
Dave McKenzie received his BFA in printmaking from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, and was also a participant in the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2000. His solo exhibitions include Dave McKenzie, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Culver City, CA (2013); Dave McKenzie: Everything’s Alright, Nothing’s Okay!, Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, University of the Arts, Philadelphia (2012); Dave McKenzie, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO (2010); Screen Doors on Submarines, REDCAT, Los Angeles (2008); Momentum 8: Dave McKenzie, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2007); and Together Is Forever, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Culver City, CA (2004). His group exhibitions include The Ungovernables, New Museum, New York (2012); Blues for Smoke, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2012–13, traveling); The Living Years: Art after 1989, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2012); 30 Seconds off an Inch, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2009); Unusual Behavior, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA (2009); Prospect.1 Biennial, New Orleans (2008); Alternating Beats, RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island (2008); Museum as Hub: Six Degrees, New Museum, New York (2008); Black Is, Black Ain’t, Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago (2008); All Together Now, Performa 07, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2007); Just Kick It Till It Breaks, The Kitchen, New York (2007); Open House: Working in Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum (2004); Slow Dive, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (2002); Video Call, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2001); and Freestyle, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2001).
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RELATED EVENTS
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Dave McKenzie: All the King’s horses…none of his men (2013)
Performed at Third Streaming (10 Greene Street, 2nd floor, New York)
Organized by Adrienne Edwards, Performa and Third Streaming for Performa 13
Thursday, February 20 and Friday, February 21, 2014
Dave McKenzie: Darker than the Moon, Smaller than the Sun (2013)
Performed at The Studio Museum in Harlem (144 West 125th Street, New York)
Organized by Thomas J. Lax, Assistant Curator; Edwin Ramoran, Manager of Public Programs and Community Engagement; and Monique Long, Curatorial Fellow, The Studio Museum in Harlem