394

Elijah Burgher

1978-

Bachelor Machine. Circa 2015.

Acrylic on drop cloth
Signed and dated in ink, verso.
60 x 60 in. (152.4 x 152.4 cm.)

  • Provenance: Private collection, New York.

    The term "bachelor machine" was first used by Marcel Duchamp in connection with pieces of work that would later be assembled into La mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même (The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even), or The Large Glass of 1915-1923. The Bachelors' earthbound, lower domain, referred to by Duchamp as La Machine Célibataire (The Bachelor Machine), is a set of geometric shapes melding together to create a large mechanical assemblage, composed of much warmer, earthier colors of brown and golden tones. Elijah Burgher's Bachelor Machine series references a system of symbols he created that are concerned with semiotics but also evoke Modernist abstract painting while simultaneously indoctrinating viewers into a mystical cult of queer sexual energies. 

    Burgher received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute, Chicago, and a BA from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. His work was featured in  Scrivere Disegnando: When Language Seeks Its Other at Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève, Geneva, Switzerland, 2020;  Drawn Together Again, FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY, 2019;  For Opacity: Elijah Burgher, Toyin Ojih Odutola, and Nathaniel Mary Quinn at the Drawing Center, 2018;  Elijah Burgher: Four Paintings, LAXART, Los Angeles, CA, 2018; the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, 2014;  Burning Down the House, the Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, Republic of Korea, 2014; and  The Temptation of AA Bronson, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, Holland, 2013, among others. He has completed residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and the Fire Island Artist Residency.
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