ERWIN OLAF – PALM SPRINGS
2019-05-27Palm Springs (2018) is a new body of work by Erwin Olaf. Made on location, Palm Springs depicts a series of enigmatic encounters with a cast of imagined characters, inspired by the celebrated history and aesthetic of the southern California city.
While set in the modern day, Palm Springs evokes the memory and visual language of the city’s past, recalling its heyday as the quintessential midcentury paradise. Southern California has been mythologized as a carefree promiseland, a limitless pastiche of cerulean swimming pools and emerald lawns, a reputation preserved by iconic poolside scenes by artists such as Slim Aarons and David Hockney. Olaf’s vision harnesses these themes to explore twenty-first century realities: the desire for glamor, wealth, and sex are ever present, but this world is more diverse, complicated, and introspective than before. In Olaf’s new Palm Springs, young people read Lolita while sun-bathing on yellow patches of grass; workers daydream in public laundromats; families enjoy scenic picnics on rocky desertscapes; and the artist himself, drinking a dirty martini poolside, sports graying hair.
Opposite – The Bank, 2018
Exhibition runs through to June 1st, 2019
Edywnn Houk Gallery
745 Fifth Avenue, 4th Floor
New York
10151 NY