“I’ve always had a desire to scramble the visual world into a vortex, to kind of de-solidify painted reality into something that has the fluidity and velocity of a great abstract painting.”
—David Salle
Since emerging on the New York art scene in 1979, David Salle has helped define the post-modern sensibility. His work navigates the charged status of images in the age of media, favoring what he calls the “presentational”"; elements that are simultaneously familiar and elusive, ultimately complicating our notion of agency.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Salle is not only an image maker—he is a painter in the tradition of the New York School. Though his work is ostensibly figurative, Salle embeds his figures within the language of all-over abstraction. His paintings are meticulously composed; all is movement, rhythm, and velocity. He creates meaning by yoking disparate images together in unexpected juxtapositions; lyrical mash-ups course through the picture plane, creating the sensation of a circuitous, weightless freefall.
Under One Roof presents the first comprehensive exhibition of Salle's work in Korea, bringing together significant pieces spanning the last 30 years. The exhibition unfolds chronologically across three distinct sections—from his earlier multilayered compositions of the 1990s and early 2000s, through the rhythmically charged Tree of Life series, to his most recent Windows works.
In his earlier works, displayed on level B2, Salle demonstrates his sophisticated, intuitive approach to composition. Images and symbols overlap to create charged visual relationships, drawing on diverse references from art history, advertising, and American culture.
The Tree of Life series pulses with a distinct musicality. Multiple panels featuring disparate images, colors, and stylistic flourishes reverberate with an aura that transcends narrative description. The video work A Well-Leafed Tree (2024) extends this exploration into the medium of film.
The exhibition culminates with Salle's recent Windows series, displayed in a domestic setting that transforms viewers into voyeurs, glimpsing private moments of reverie, conflict, or introspection through imagined apartment house windows. Emerging from his digital project, Party of Animals (2023), these works frame character and setting within compositions that suggest countless narratives.
Throughout his career, Salle has maintained a consistent intellectual stance: an invitation to think critically and imaginatively, to resist literal interpretations, and to embrace the complex relationship between individual expression and cultural context. By bringing multiple visual languages "under one roof," this exhibition offers a rare opportunity to experience the joy and breadth of Salle's artistic vision—one that continues to evolve while remaining distinctively his own.
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