David Zwirner is pleased to announce Empress of Night, an exhibition of new and recent work by Marcel Dzama, on view at the gallery’s 606 N Western Avenue location in Los Angeles. Dzama’s recent works are fantastical visions of a lush and at-times flooded world where anthropomorphized animals and dancing figures are set against dense junglescapes and expansive skies. References to Francisco Goya and surrealist poet Federico García Lorca (1898–1936)—one of Spain’s most important and celebrated writers—are evident throughout these compositions, suggesting parallels between the war-torn and uncertain eras in which those artists lived and the political, social, and ecological upheavals of our own. Some works make direct reference to the rise of authoritarianism in the world today, while others use allegory as a critical means of commenting on growing threats to democracy and human rights.
Dzama made these works late at night—as is his nocturnal working style—and many are set against dark skies that contain celestial visions of stars and moons. Evoking a sense of joy and wonder, these nightscapes suggest hope and possibility even during times of unrest. Among the new works are several large-format drawings, some of which are filled to the brim with animal life, which serve as a reminder of the toll being taken on the planet and its effects on all life-forms. These include The sleep of reason produces monsters (2025), which makes direct reference to Goya’s famous 1799 print of the same title, and Blue water blues (2024), an absorbing, nearly monochromatic triptych that shows an underwater scene rife with marine life. I never came from your rib you came from my vagina (2025), another large-format triptych, presents a jubilant display of womanhood, which reads like a celebratory rejoinder to some of the more noxious strains of hypermasculinity that are increasingly prevalent in society today.
Since rising to prominence in the late 1990s, Marcel Dzama has developed an immediately recognizable visual language that investigates human action and motivation, as well as the blurred relationship between the real and the subconscious. Drawing equally from folk vernacular as from art-historical and contemporary influences, Dzama’s work visualizes a universe of childhood fantasies and otherworldly fairy tales.
The show opened on June 28 and runs until August 8, 2025, at 606 N Western Avenue, Los Angeles. For further information, please visit the gallery website.
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Image: Marcel Dzama, The sleep of reason produces monsters, 2025 © Marcel Dzama. Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner
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