Chris Ofili: Joyful Sorrow

A stunning presentation of the acclaimed British painter Chris Ofili’s newest body of work that continues his exploration of Shakespeare’s Othello

Renowned for his rich, multilayered paintings, Ofili here expands his engagement with William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice (1603–1604). The transmuting colors and forms of the watercolors and paintings in this volume reflect the complex interiority of the character Othello—his vulnerabilities and his joyful sorrows. The artist also considers these works, which investigate ideas of authenticity, meaning, and selfhood, to be partly self-portraits. As viewers and readers, encountering a subject whose features split and shift with each repeated representation, we are asked to consider metamorphosis, love, the bearing of outside influences on our inner selves, and the force we exercise on the world.

Published on the occasion of a two-site exhibition staged by David Zwirner Paris and Victoria Miro in Venice, the catalogue includes a text from Ofili’s studio and a selection of poems by Jason Allen-Paisant from his 2023 collection Self-Portrait as Othello.

Chris Ofili (b. 1968) explores the intersection of desire, identity, and representation in his work, which merges abstraction and figuration; vibrant, symbolic, and often mysterious, his paintings and works on paper incorporate a range of aesthetic and cultural sources. He has presented solo exhibitions at venues including the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (2017–2019); National Gallery, London (2017); New Museum, New York (2014–2015); The Arts Club of Chicago (2010); Tate Britain, London (2010 and 2005); Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover (2006); The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2005); and Serpentine Gallery, London (1998). Ofili represented Britain in the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003 and won the Turner Prize in 1998. He lives and works in Trinidad. 

Jason Allen-Paisant is a scholar, an award-winning poet, and a writer. His work explores how Afro-diasporic artists and communities shape their futures through embodied philosophies, focusing on the intersections of poetry and philosophy. His debut poetry collection, Thinking with Trees, won the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. His second book, Self-Portrait as Othello, has earned significant accolades, including the 2023 Forward Prize for Best Collection and the T. S. Eliot Prize. He is a professor of critical theory and creative writing at the University of Manchester.

ISBN: 9781644231593
Format: Paperback
Pages: 76
Publisher: David Zwirner Books
Published: January 07, 2025

“Each work is hung in an ornately carved, charred-black frame and veiled in fabric, which the viewer must lift in order to see the underlying canvas…dreamy portraits of Othello as a horned satyr, ensconced in swirls of lush, powdery pastels reminiscent of a Marc Chagall painting”