Royal Art Lodge
From Devon Dikeou of The Dikeou Collection:
The Canadian collaborative, Royal Art Lodge, has had a few different members on its roster, but is the brain child of Marcel Dzama, Drew Langois, Neil Farber, Michael Dumontier, and Hollie Dzama. For the past five years, meeting on a regular basis, the four, and sometimes others, begin drawing almost in the spirit of the Surrealist tradition of Exquisite Corps—where a drawing was begun and added to, in a tag team-like manner, creating a collaborative manifestation of, quite often, a human form—head, middle, and legs drawn by different artists. With the Royal Art Lodge, rather than just complying with an individual drawing, they might work on a series, with a range of subjects, characters, outcomes, and styles. Somehow almost like the game of Clue, the viewer finds some solace in the range exhibited and the associations derived. The results are telling, but sarcastic, truthful and derivative, naive yet sardonic, both in the execution and the subject matter. In all, not unlike learning the true reality of the Easter Bunny, Great Pumpkin, Santa, or even a tax cut. The Royal Art Lodge’s “Christmas Stories” have appeared in issues #11 and #18 of zingmagazine through the diligent work of elves.
Works from the Royal Art Lodge are included in the upcoming Swap Meet: Artpace and The Dikeou Collection, which debuts this Thursday, September 20 at Artpace. The public opening is from 6-8:30pm, with a 7pm walk through the exhibition with guest curator (and past International Artist-in-Residence) Devon Dikeou.
Image credit: Installing works from the Royal Art Lodge at Artpace. Photo by Wendi Kimura
Wendi Kimura
Wendi Kimura is the Publications Coordinator at Artpace, editing and managing our written and printed matter, as well as our social media. She enjoys a proper pronoun-antecedent agreement and is an absolute serial comma devotee. Wendi hearts Hi-Chew candy, Texas Monthly magazine, The Rub on Brooklyn Radio, and internet cats (like these).