By Marcel Dzama
Located in Toronto, Ontario
With his unmistakable version of contemporary Surrealism, Marcel Dzama is one of the most successful Canadian artists.
Born in Winnipeg in 1974, Dzama had an international reputation by the time he was 30.
In the 1990s, as one of the founding members of the Royal Art Lodge, Dzama contributed to the renaissance of figurative art and simultaneously put Winnipeg on the map as a center for Canadian creativity.
Dzama's works are instantly recognizable for their subject and style. He often takes banal scenes or characters and injects them with menacing, eerie, or twisted details that can border on the absurd, yet with a touch of fun.
In this untitled work (aka “Street Seller”) we find two men engaged in an ambiguous exchange. The man on the right, dressed in a fedora and trenchcoat, unveils the lining of his jacket to reveal four small gnome-like figures for sale (each with varying expressions). His counterpart extends his arm with a hand full of cash, ready to purchase the bizarre contraband.
Like the best of Dzama's work, the viewer is drawn in with obscure clues and asked to assemble a narrative or just enjoy his wacky imagination.
Dzama's work can be found in a host of prestigious public and private collections including Paris' Centre Georges Pompidou, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the MoMA, Le Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. He is particularly favored by celebrity collectors including Brad Pitt, Jim Carrey...
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1990s Surrealist Marcel Dzama Art
