Dexter Dalwood – A Painter’s Dialogue with History

Dexter Dalwood
Contemporary History Painter

For over three decades, Dexter Dalwood has established himself as a master of contemporary history painting, skillfully translating real-world events into imagined and composite landscapes. His work not only advances the language and narratives of painting but also pays homage to the rich history of the medium. Dalwood’s acute understanding of past artistic genres has evolved into a distinctive style that eschews figurative tropes in favor of uninhabited and uncertain spatial concerns, shifting scales, and compressed picture planes.

Among his most renowned works are the fictional interiors of Kurt Cobain’s Greenhouse (2000) and Wittgenstein’s Bathroom (2001). These pieces are executed with painterly flourishes and references that span a diverse range of influences, from Willem de Kooning and Clyfford Still to Manet, Munch, and Bellini. Over time, Dalwood has concentrated these ideas into constricted views from inside an airplane or expanded them through windows into his unique Dalwoodesque spaces, which increasingly distance themselves from any original source material. The growing presence of textual and numerical elements on his canvases, alongside abstract passages of gestural and frontal mark-making, signifies a distillation and refinement of his artistic practice.

Earlier works, such as Brian Jones’ Swimming Pool (2000) and the imagined view from W.G. Sebald’s wrecked car in The Crash (2008), depicted sites of trauma. In contrast, his recent pieces evoke an unnamed sense of foreboding, perhaps inspired by stills from 24-hour news feeds or the myriad potentialities of a mirrored puddle or a fleeting glimpse of a ceiling rose. Dalwood’s fragmentary, sample-heavy aesthetic often begins with pencil or cut paper studies, transcending mere postmodern quotation and displacement. His paintings enact a dizzying layering of thought processes, drawing from a vast back catalogue of art history, ongoing research, and a profound appreciation for the significance of time and memory in creating newly epochal images.

Born in Bristol, UK, in 1960, Dexter Dalwood is currently based in Mexico City. In 2017, he undertook a residency in Oaxaca, which inspired a series titled An Inadequate Painted History of Mexico. This series has been featured in the touring exhibition Esto No Me Pertenece at Centro de las Artes San Agustín in Oaxaca and Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL) in Mexico City (2021-22). Dalwood’s major solo museum exhibitions include Kunsthaus Centre PasquArt in Biel, Switzerland (2013); CAC Málaga in Spain (2010); FRAC Champagne-Ardennes in Reims, France (2010); and Tate St. Ives in the UK (2010). His work has also been included in recent group exhibitions such as The Paradoxes of Internationalism. Part I at Museo Tamayo in Mexico City (until October 1, 2023), You to Me, Me to You at A4 Arts Foundation in Cape Town, South Africa (until November 18, 2023), and Modern Media Networks: Painting and Mass Media at Tate Modern in London (2020).

Looking ahead, Dalwood’s first solo show with Lisson Gallery is set to open in London in September 2024. He is also curating José María Velasco: A View of Mexico at The National Gallery in London (March 29 – August 17, 2025) and will present From Dreams You Wake Up at Galerie Nordenhake in Mexico City (August 31 – October 19, 2024), alongside Accordion Fields at Lisson Gallery in London (February 23 – May 4, 2024).

Dexter Dalwood continues to push the boundaries of contemporary painting, creating works that resonate with the complexities of history, memory, and the ever-evolving narrative of art itself.

EDITOR’S HIGHLIGHTS