During the Dutch Golden Age, vanitas grew in popularity as a genre of memento mori that emphasized life’s transience. The opulent paintings were steeped in symbolism and foregrounded the futility of ambition and worldly pleasures.
Marc Dennis draws on this 17th-century tradition as he refashions the still life for a contemporary audience. In a recent oil painting, “Happily Ever After,” hordes of honeybees and hornets descend on a lush bouquet. Kaleidoscopic bubbles float across the five-foot canvas, reflecting the surrounding colors and distorting clear viewers of nearby flowers and fruit.
The insects and glossy orbs add another layer of impermanence to the already fleeting imagery, while also reflecting on the tenuous relationship between the organic and human-made. Similar tensions appear in “Allegory of the Readymade,” which suffocates and warps a seemingly vibrant painting with thick layers of plastic wrap. Each of the works clings to a brief moment in time, capturing both life at its prime and serving as a bold reminder of its inevitable end.
Dennis’ paintings are on view in I’m Happy You’re Here through March 1 at Harper’s Gallery in New York. Find more from the artist on Instagram.
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