Sperone Westwater is pleased to present an exhibition of moody, contemplative watercolors and works on paper by artist and filmmaker David Lynch. I Like to See My Sheep marks his second show with the gallery, featuring nine new works on paper from 2021, as well as 22 monochromatic watercolors made between 2010 and 2017. A concurrent exhibition, Big Bongo Night, at Pace Gallery in Chelsea will feature Lynch’s paintings and sculptures. An opening reception will be held at both galleries on Thursday, November 3.

The collection of watercolors were made at Idem printing press in Paris, which was the subject of a 2013 documentary, Idem Paris, directed by Lynch. “Hervé Chandès from the Fondation Cartier first introduced me to Patrice Forest [the studio’s director],” Lynch explains. “I see this incredible place, and I get the opportunity to work there. And this was like a dream! It just opened up this brand-new world.” In this atmosphere “so conducive to creating,” he was inspired to create these watercolors, favorites from his personal collection. Nine more colorful works on paper, distinguished by their bright red palette and dynamic subject matter, were made during the pandemic at Lynch’s painting studio in Los Angeles.

Lynch’s five-decade career features an extensive range of art practices, including: painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, sculpture, music and film. While studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) in the late 1960s, Lynch envisioned his first ‘moving painting’; a multidimensional painted sculpture under a projected film entitled Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times) (1967). This multimedia work marked Lynch’s first foray into filmmaking. Though he is an artist first and foremost, he is widely known as an Academy Award winning filmmaker whose filmography includes Eraserhead (1977), The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986), Lost Highway (1997), Mulholland Drive (2001), Inland Empire (2006) as well as the television series Twin Peaks (1990-91), and Twin Peaks: The Return (2017). 

Lynch has been the subject of numerous solo museum exhibitions internationally, including, a recent survey of his photography at the IPFO House of Photography, Olten, Switzerland (2021), which traveled to the Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen (2021-22). In 2019, HOME, Manchester, hosted the first major survey of his work in the United Kingdom. Retrospectives include “Someone is in my House” at the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht (2018-19), “Silence and Dynamism” at the Centre of Contemporary Art, Torun, Poland (2017-18), “Between Two Worlds” at the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, Australia (2015), and “The Air is on Fire” at the Fondation Cartier, Paris (2007). In 2014-15, a survey was presented at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) where he studied. In 2013-14, Brett Littman curated a thematic selection of works utlizing “naming” through narrative text at Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles, which traveled to the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (2014-15). Other earlier important solos included “David Lynch: The Factory Photographs” at the Photographers’ Gallery, London (2014), “Small Stories” at Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris France; Cinéma Galeries, Brussels, Belgium, the GL Strand in Copenhagen (2010-11), and the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow (2009).

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