Geoffrey Chadsey

The Contemporary Museum presents the first solo museum exhibition of the drawings of New York artist Geoffrey Chadsey. Organized by Associate Director/Chief Curator James Jensen, this exhibition presents a survey of Chadsey's figurative works in which he combines elements from different sources and synthesizes them into works that appear natural and at the same time curiously unnatural. The artist draws his imagery from art history, pop/alternative magazines, and the Internet, often mixing in the facial features of historical and contemporary public figures such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein and Elvis Presley, heads from paintings by Gustav Klimt, and Diego Velazquez, rap stars such as Snoop Dogg, Juvenile and Xzibit, and Chadsey's own father, brother, and sisters. Chadsey’s subjects blend fashion (both high and hip-hop) and images of youth culture and gay life (found via Internet sites) to create humorous subjects and disconcerting scenes that ch allenge our ability to read the signs of masculinity, femininity, race, attitude, and expression. Chadsey’s images make powerful statements on the hybrid nature of contemporary culture.

TCM has published a catalogue for the exhibition Boys in the Band: Geoffrey Chadsey Drawings 1998-2006 which is available in the Museum Shop. The 40-page publication includes a conversation between the artist and James Jensen, curator of the exhibition; an essay by David A. M. Goldberg; and a list of the 37 works in the exhibition, many of which are illustrated in color.

Geoffrey Chadsey
Boys in the Band
Drawings 1998-2006