PLATFORM by David Zwirner

Georgia Elrod & Michael Kirkham

July 2021

GEORGIA ELROD

Georgia Elrod develops her paintings from careful studies in gouache and mixed media to create depictions of the body as transforming architecture. Her compositions contemplate where and how individual physicality melds with the world around us. Elrod’s work uses familiar and unidentifiable imagery to imagine physical identity as a kind of visual and experiential abstraction.

BIO:

Georgia Elrod was born in 1979. She received her BA with honors in Fine Art in 2001 from Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado and her MFA in 2010 from Hunter College in New York City.

Solo exhibitions of Elrod’s work include: Heartbeats at Peninsula Art Space in New York City (2019); Around the Corner at Novella Gallery in New York City (2014); Open System at Hunter College Times Square Gallery in New York City (2010;) Viewfinder at Roger Smith Lab Gallery in New York City (2006;) and Brief Histories at Jay Etkin Gallery in Memphis, Tennessee (2005); among others.

Group exhibitions which featured Elrod’s work include: Moon Burn, online at Goldmali Gallery (2021); Purple at Underdonk in New York City (2020); MIRROR EYE at Far x Wide and Young Space at Ortega Y Gasset Projects in New York City (2020); Wildernesses, curated by Johnny Mullen, at Peninsula Art Space in New York City (2019); A Fairly Secret Army (notes from New York) at Wild Palms in Dusseldorf, Germany (2019); Polishing the Jewel Box at Disturb the Neighbors in New York City (2019); The Unusuals at The Painting Center in New York City (2019); Graces at 5-50 Gallery in New York City (2018); Truth at BRIC in New York City (2017); Soft & Hard at Trestle Projects in New York City (2016); Borderlands at COOP Gallery in Nashville, Tennessee (2015); New Work City at Momenta Art in New York City (2015); Roll Call at 1717 Troutman in New York City (2014); Strange Times at Novella Gallery in New York City (2013); Stuck at Brooklyn Fireproof East in New York City (2012); Rogue Element at RH+ Gallery in Istanbul, Turkey (2011); Mirror Piece I: Reconfigured at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City (2010); Platonia at Tribes Gallery in New York City (2008); Native Spirit at Supreme Trading in New York City (2006); It's Going to Look Like an Art Show at Stolen Gallery in New York City (2005); NEO-CONey Island at The Change You Want to See in New York City (2004); Scope Art Fair/Miami with Slingshot Project in Miami, Florida (2003); Small Works at TSL Gallery in Hudson, New York (2002); and Burst at Slingshot Project in New York City (2001).

Elrod lives and works out of Brooklyn and Hudson, New York.

MICHAEL KIRKHAM

Michael Kirkham’s paintings depict environments populated by figures drawn from both his imagination and memory. He chooses to work without any models or references, including photographs, so as to create a space specific to painting. The results are frequently strange—compositions that embrace distortion while deliberately disregarding the “real world” and image reproduction technologies.

BIO:

Michael Kirkham was born in 1971. He received his education from Blackpool and the Fylde College in Blackpool, UK (1988), the Glasgow School of Art in Glasgow, Scotland (1990), and De Ateliers in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (1994).

Solo exhibitions of Kirkham’s work include: Negatives at Gerhard Hofland Gallery in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2020); Hand in Glove at U124 project space in Berlin, Germany (2019); viennacontemporary in Vienna, Austria, represented by Gerhard Hofland Gallery in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2018); Parallelwelt at nationalmuseum in Berlin, Germany (2017); Small Erotics & Still Lives at The Corridor in Reykjavík, Iceland (2015); The Indolent at Galerie Michael Haas in Berlin, Germany (2013); Hotel Grande Abyss at Aschenbach & Hofland Galleries in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2008); and Michael Kirkham at Haags Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, the Netherlands (2007).

Select significant group exhibitions which featured Kirkham’s work include: Yes We’re Open at Gerhard Hofland Gallery in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2019); Viel Feind, Viel Ehr at Peninsula Art Space in New York City (2019); Blush at Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 22 in Berlin, Germany (2017); VOLTA12 at Basel China, represented by Gerhard Hofland Gallery in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2016); Roxxie, at nationalmuseum in Berlin, Germany (2015); Ontbloot, at Haags Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, the Netherlands (2015); Bitter Süsse Zeiten, at Kunsthause Städe in Städe, Germany (2014); For the Sake of Paint 2, at Galerie Witteveen in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2013-2012); Memoires du Futur at the Collection Olbricht at the La Maison Rouge in Paris, France (2011); Lebenslust und Tötentanz at the Collection Olbricht at Kunsthalle Krems in Krems, Australia (2010); Table Dancing at The Forgotten Bar in Berlin, Germany (2009); Lanzarote at Keith Talent Gallery in London, UK (2008); Songs of Innocence and Aggression at the National Gallery Of Macedonia in Skopje, Macedonia (2007); What’s new? at Aanwinsten Hedendaagse Kunst at the Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem in Arnhem, the Netherlands (2006); and Urgences de Figuration at the Centre Cultural Francais in Turin, Italy (2001-2000).

Kirkham’s work is held in numerous public collections, including: the Collection Olbricht in Essen and Berlin, Germany; the Collection SOER Rusche in Oelde, Germany; the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, the Netherlands; the Haags Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, the Netherlands; the AkzoNobel Art Foundation in Arnhem, the Netherlands, the Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem in Arnhem, the Netherlands; De Nederlandsche Bank, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands; the Museum for Realism (formerly the Scheringa Collection) in the Netherlands; and Sammlung Ritter Sport, in Stuttgart, Germany. 

Kirkham’s work is also in several private collections in Holland, Belgium, France, Israël, Germany, Scotland and the United States.

Kirkham lives and works in Berlin, Germany.