COURTESY THE ARTIST, BRIDGET DONAHUE, AND SADIE COLES HQ
Sadie Coles HQ gallery in London now represents Martine Syms, the Los Angeles–based artist whose work deals with identity, surveillance, and performance, often in the form of multi-screen video installations and photo-based work. Syms, who is also represented by Bridget Donahue gallery in New York, joins a roster that includes Sam Durant, Sarah Lucas, Laura Owens, Richard Prince, and Jordan Wolfson.
The news comes a little more than a month and a half after the close of Syms’s show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Part of the museum’s “Projects” series, the exhibition included a feature-length film called Incense Sweaters and Ice (2017), in which a cast of characters wander around Los Angeles while a woman makes music in a purple room. Earlier this year, Syms also had a solo show at Sadie Coles HQ, where her work was being shown as part of a Condo gallery-share program. The gallery is currently planning a Syms solo show for fall 2018.
“Syms is original and dynamic, and has already earned wide recognition for a practice that combines conceptual grit, humor, and social commentary,” a spokesperson for the gallery told ARTnews. “Having experienced the work during Donahue’s presentation last year as part of London’s Condo gallery-swap scheme, we found Martine and her work compelling, sophisticated, and profound.”