Core77

Industrial designer Jason Culler happened to stroll past the James Cohan gallery the other day when something familiar caught his eye...blue foam!

James Cohan Gallery is pleased to announce the first New York solo gallery exhibition by Dutch artist, Folkert de Jong, who reinvents monuments and classical figurative sculpture by combining fictional and factual histories into life-sized sculptural tableaux. His sculptures are made from unconventional, industrial insulation materials - Styrofoam and polyurethane foam - whose color palette of baby blue and pink and their inherent toxicity are what he refers to as, "one big moral contradiction." Best known for work that employs the vehicle of the 'grotesque,' De Jong reflects upon the paradox of contemporary life where advances in global policy, economics, science and art exist alongside the continuous forces of war, misfortune and catastrophe. While his characters often embody the darkest side of the historical and contemporary geo-political terrain, they nevertheless maintain an underlying humor and humanism.

Folkert de Jong
Les Saltimbanques
October 20 - November 24, 2007
James Cohan Gallery
533 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10001