Chris Ofili: Joyful Sorrow

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.

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Paperback, David Zwirner Books, 2024
76 p, 7.75 × 10 in.