Night Gallery is pleased to present Headlines, an exhibition of recent drawings by Derek Boshier. This will be the artist's third exhibition with the gallery.
Derek Boshier, Headlines, installation view at Night Gallery, 2021
Boshier first rose to prominence while exhibiting in London at the height of the British Pop Art Movement in the early 1960’s. During this time the graphic profile of a head first appeared in his paintings, notably in Man playing snooker and thinking of other things, 1961. Originally inspired by Victorian phrenology diagrams, this painting depicts the internal monologue of the subject as iconography contained within a yellow head. Since then this image has reappeared throughout his storied career and has evolved a way of visually metabolizing the news of the day into the “Headline” drawings, featured prominently in this exhibition.
Derek Boshier, America Hands On – Gardening and Guns, 2019
Boshier’s practice has taken many forms over the years: he has produced films, paintings, sculptures, album covers as well as theatrical sets, but drawing has remained central the entire time. Magazines and newspaper clippings are the primary source for his “Headline” drawings and the immediacy of the medium has allowed him to react to current events in real time. While the drawings exhibited here are all recent, they are the culmination of decades of dedication to drawing and conviction to understanding the world at large through lines on paper.
Derek Boshier, 1450-2021, 2020
Derek Boshier, Headlines, installation view, 2021
Derek Boshier, World News #20, 2019
Derek Boshier, Two Lives, 2018
Derek Boshier, Headlines, installation view, 2021
In addition to the Headline drawings, this exhibition includes Samuel Palmer’s Nightmare, a sprawling dreamlike landscape. Named after the British Romantic painter, the work reimagines Palmer's famous pastoral landscapes in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. While the industrialization of Britain took place during Samuel Palmer’s lifetime, any traces of it are missing from his paintings. In Boshier’s drawing, menacing smokestacks puncture fields of intricate flowers and wildlife. By visualizing this moment’s duality, Boshier rejects the romantic and finds beauty in the grit of reality, a theme that has resonated in his work across the years.
Derek Boshier, Samuel Palmer's Nightmare, 2019
Derek Boshier lives and works in Los Angeles. His work has been exhibited extensively in the United States and abroad including shows at Gazelli Art House, London, UK; The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany; Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin, Germany; The National Portrait Gallery, London, UK and others. His work has been acquired by The Menil, Houston, TX; The Tate Gallery of British Art and The British Museum in London; The Brooklyn Museum, New York; and The Centre Pompidou, Paris, among many other collections.
Derek Boshier
America Hands On-gardening and guns, 2019
pencil on paper
27 x 40 in (68.6 x 101.6 cm)
DB238
Derek Boshier
Samuel Palmer's Nightmare, 2019
pencil on paper
33 x 60 in (83.8 x 152.4 cm)
DB240
Derek Boshier
The Conversation, 2018
pencil on paper
10 1/2 x 13 1/2 in (26.7 x 34.3 cm)
DB195
Derek Boshier
Scientific American Magazine - December 2017 (from the "Fragment" series), 2018
pencil on paper
11 1/2 x 15 1/2 in (29.2 x 39.4 cm)
DB197
Derek Boshier
Addy and Ernie (from the "Headlines"series), 2018
pencil on paper
15 1/2 x 19 1/2 in (39.4 x 49.5 cm)
DB202
Derek Boshier
Scientific American - December 2017 (from the "Fragment" series), 2018
pencil on paper
11 1/2 x 17 1/2 in (29.2 x 44.5 cm)
DB204
Derek Boshier
The White House (from the "Headlines" series), 2018
pencil on paper
7 1/2 x 9 1/2 in (19.1 x 24.1 cm)
DB212
Derek Boshier
Patriotism is the Father of War (from the "Headlines" series), 2018
pencil on paper
11 1/2 x 17 1/2 in (29.2 x 44.5 cm)
DB210
Derek Boshier
The Subscribers - "Out Smart Magazine Classified Jobs, House and Auto Newspaper", 2018
pencil on paper
18 x 24 in (45.7 x 61 cm)
DB207
Derek Boshier
Daily Star, Wednesday October 18 2017, UK (from the "Fragment" series), 2018
pencil on paper
11 x 13 1/2 in (27.9 x 34.3 cm)
DB222
Derek Boshier
LA Weekly February 2-8 2018, 2019
pencil on paper
8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in (21.6 x 26.7 cm)
DB241