Remai Modern announces Jimmie Durham exhibition

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Jimmie Durham, "Choose Any Three," 1989

carved ash, magnolia, pine, metal, glass, acrylic paint. 99 ¼ "× 49 ¼" × 48" Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Purchased with partial funds provided by Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy. Image courtesy of kurimanzutto, Mexico City.

Remai Modern, slated to open in 2017, has announced that it will host the major career retrospective, Jimmie Durham: At the Center of the World, in early 2018. 

Organized by the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, this is the first North American retrospective of the artist, performer, essayist and activist Jimmie Durham, and Remai Modern is the only Canadian venue for the exhibition.

The presentation of Jimmie Durham: At the Center of the World at Remai Modern has received major support from the Frank and Ellen Remai Foundation.

“This inaugural programming announcement is particularly significant for the new Remai Modern,” said Gregory Burke, Remai Modern Executive Director & CEO. “As a Cherokee artist, Jimmie Durham has for four decades been at the forefront of developments in contemporary art, with works that deftly traverse cultural boundaries.”

Since moving to Europe more than 20 years ago, Durham has largely chosen not to exhibit his work in the United States. His work has been seen more frequently in Canada over that time, and has been an important and vital reference for many Canadian artists, scholars and curators.

Jimmie Durham: At the Center of the World demonstrates Durham’s commitment to shedding light on the complexities of historical narratives, notions of authenticity, and the borders and boundaries that try to contain us. He is arguably one of the most important artists working in the international contemporary art scene today, and the exhibition provides a much-anticipated opportunity for audiences to gain a deeper understanding of—or perhaps to encounter for the first time—the richly rewarding work of this complex, absorbing and peripatetic artist.

Dating from 1970 to the present, At the Center of the World features nearly 200 works from Durham’s expansive practice, including sculpture, drawing, collage, printmaking, photography and video. A catalogue comprising several scholarly essays, an interview with the artist, a chronology, and a selection of his own writings, both old and new, accompanies the exhibition.

The exhibition is on view at the Hammer Museum from January 29 – May 7, 2017. After appearing at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis from June 22 – October 8, 2017 and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York from November 3, 2017 – January 28, 2018, the exhibition will be at Remai Modern March 23 – August 5, 2018. The exhibition is curated by Hammer Museum senior curator Anne Ellegood, with MacKenzie Stevens, curatorial assistant.

About Jimmie Durham

Born in Washington, Arkansas in 1940, Durham studied art in Geneva before returning to the United States in 1973 and working for the American Indian movement. He was active in the New York art scene prior to moving to Mexico in 1987. Since moving to Europe in 1994, he has exhibited widely and to great critical acclaim. Although he has rarely exhibited in the U.S. in the past 20 years, his work is considered vitally important in relationship to the country’s colonial history and political struggles.

Source: Remai Modern