What modernist painting proves is that we do not know a priori what painting has to do or be faithful to in order to remain painting. 

-Stanley Cavell

Gems Paris is proud to present the debut of Dexter Dalwood’s Words: small, authoritative signs that address enduring questions about whether painting can exist autonomously—and whether it can be nationalised.

What you’ll see are a series of hand-made word-paintings acting like museum signage, and behaving like conceptual provocations. Dexter Dalwood, a globe-trotting painter who treats canvases like a mother tongue—art’s base apparatus—and museums like confusing airports, has made small panels that point toward national identity, collections, and the eternal dilemma of whether a painting is French, German, Mexican, or simply very committed to its font choice.

With these portable works, replete with indicators of what constitutes Painting, Dalwood has proven, once more and contra the museum’s inflated ego, that "we do not know a priori what painting has to do or be faithful to in order to remain painting." By confronting contradiction, and unlike many producers in a flooded market that take painting for granted, he may be reminding us that he is an artist of British origin, now (sign) posting Painting in Mexico. 

Dalwood’s signs live gloriously in no-man’s land, between rooms, between categories, and between understanding and doubt. They’re humorous, learned, and just ambiguous enough to make you question whether you’re looking at paintings or the exit sign to the gift shop. Visit the show for the meta-paintings that prove we know less than institutions would have us believe, but we’re happy to guide you to the right door anyway; stay because you got lost in a gallery and the signs are intentionally pointing in more than one direction. 

-Stuart Cumberland