ARIS AZARMSA

For The Love Of The Game

September 28th - October 15th 2022

Swivel Gallery is pleased to present For The Love Of The Game, an online presentation of Aris Azarmsa’s new works centering thematically around one of America’s greatest obsessions: sports. This is the first installment in the gallery’s new initiative, “Come On In,” a series of virtual shows which seeks to engage new audiences by offering competitive works to begin one’s collecting journey.

For The Love Of The Game, comprised of two large-scale seminal works as well as a batch of studies, aims to shed light on the similarities between sports figures and artists, with their unwavering commitment to their craft, their incredible stamina, and with the synonymous attitude of grit and glory. In the larger works, Azarmsa translates two monumental sports movies, which seem as if they themselves are actually sweating, as the artist’s evident laboring becomes cinematic transmutations. One pays homage to The Last Dance, a documentary series following the career of the great Michael Jordan and his teammates’ last season together. The second large work, 61, references the eponymous movie, which tells the story of Yankee player Roger Maris’ home run record set in 1961.

Azarmsa’s works are a reflection of, and live within the canon of American postmodern painting - they exist on survival, and grasp at extending, continuing, and subverting the tradition of oil painting. At first glance, they cast a complex barrage of demanding imagery that nearly comes off abstract; their immediate attack of the senses nearly knocks us backwards. But as our eyes adjust slowly they come to life, like musical notes spread across the canvas. Our mind receives the puzzle and begins to dissect it, tugging at Ariadne’s string only to find that it leads us deeper and deeper into the labyrinth.