Marlene Dumas currently has a retrospective at MOCA.  The show runs through Sept. 22, 2008.  Measuring your own Grave is a tour de force with powerful explosive paintings that will make you think about death, violence, race, sex, birth, and humanity.    This show is currently at MOCA in Los Angeles and will open in Dec. at MOMA in NYC.  Please check it out.  The painting below features Marlene's daughter in her studio after she finished playing with paint.
   Painting above is "Measuring your own grave", the distance between your arms span and feet to head is the same.  (art by Marlene Dumas, photo by Andy Keate)  Beautifully morose and personal, the work examines the human figure in its most primal state.   Whether painting students, brides, sex workers or her daughter, the work is daring and contemporary.     Marlene's extraordinary use of color is disturbing and what you wouldn't expect from the woman who loves life and living.   Not for children.

Marlene Video

This exhibition of the work of the acclaimed painter Marlene Dumas, the first of its scale to be mounted in the United States, is organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, in association with The Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition includes approximately seventy paintings and thirty-five drawings, providing a comprehensive examination of the work of one of the most thought-provoking and fascinating artists working today. The exhibition opens with Dumas's earliest mature works from the late 1970s. While loosely chronological, it will also reflect Dumas's tendency to work in series, with key paintings grouped together. Through her focus on the human figure, Dumas merges themes of race, sexuality, and social identity with personal experience and art-historical antecedents to create a unique perspective on important and controversial issues of the day. The exhibition provides an opportunity to trace these themes over the course of the artist's career, and also provides access to paintings and drawings of extraordinary technical quality. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue. (source for this bio is MOMA.org)

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