Eva Presenhuber recently struck out on her own after a long affiliation with Hauser & Wirth, and for her first show as a solo gallerist, she presents one of the darker horses in her stable: Verne Dawson, whose figurative, naive-realist paintings have been called everything from visionary to fussily academic. Those who take the latter view might come around after seeing his newest cycle, “Aerialists,” 2003. Dawson’s paintings typically depict mystical worlds, elaborate allegories of the cosmos, legendary pasts and fantastical futures. In these paintings, trapeze artists fly among the symbols of the Zodiac, past a fire-engine red Mars and a glowing sun, and over arenas where lions and panthers cavort with their tamers. The artist is fascinated with the circus, which he views as one of the last extant manifestations of premodern culture (he’s equally intrigued by bullfighting and rodeos). These lush, luminous paintings feel like direct conduits to that primal history.
Translated from German by Emily Speers Mears.
