Sam Durant: Scenes from the Pilgrim Story

Galleria Emi Fontana is glad to present the third solo exhibition by Sam Durant.

From November 12th, 2006 to February 28th, 2007. The Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 11 am to 7.30 pm.

Galleria Emi Fontana is glad to present the third solo exhibition by Los Angeles artist Sam Durant.

The work of Sam Durant investigates utopia and its failure in relation to protest and countercultures movements in American political history. Through the use of a great variety of media, his work rather than succumbing to a fascination with the original sources generates an aesthetic in which elements of high and low culture coexist.

This new project for Galleria Emi Fontana consists of several works employingvarious media dealing with different aspects the Merry Mount settlement- apagan offshoot of the Plymouth Colony (settled by the Pilgrims 1620 inMassachusetts). The works for the exhibition are based on the Merry Mount scene in thePlymouth National Wax Museum. The artist, working from the postcardphotograph of the scene, extracted various compositions and reconfiguredthem into a series of sculptural tableau, drawings, figures and props.

Sam Durant, born in 1961 in Seattle, lives and works in Los Angeles.

His work has been shown at prestigious institutions, including: SalzburgerKunstverein (1999); MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles (2000);MAMCO, Geneva; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, (2001); KunstvereinDüsseldorf; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut; MOCA Los Angeles(2002); Kunstverein, Dusseldorf; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Secession,Wien (with Monica Bonvicini), (2003); 50° Venice Biennial; Whitney Biennial, .SMAK in Gent (2004); ICA, Boston; Tate Liverpool, Liverpool (2005);Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo; Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA (2006).

Sam Durant
Scenes from the Pilgrim Story: Goodbye to Merry Mount