See Socialites Sweat

Vancouver artist Andy Dixon has opened Leisure Studies, his first New York solo show, bringing his signature vibrant palette and elite subject matter to Nolita’s Rebecca Hossack Gallery. “For years now, I’ve been exploring the economy of art in my work, turning the point of view around and focusing on the patron as my subject matter,” says Dixon of his attraction to the deliriously high-end. In Leisure Studies, Dixon’s manor-born subjects take to the playing field in a world that looks to be one part the Elysian Fields, two parts the Hamptons. Ruddy couples chortle on sailboats, polo horses strain with exertion, and tennis players volley over courts the colour of watermelon sorbet. “For Leisure Studies, I’m looking at the lifestyle surrounding the tribe of the upper class, specifically acts of pure leisure, while simultaneously commenting on my own studio practice which is often described as ‘playful’, by including a large painting of my own studio containing a handful of the other paintings from the show,” says Dixon. Leisure Studies’ trenchant situation in the global capital of A-list pleasures (according to Frank Sinatra, Jay-Z…) underscores the artist’s intent to simultaneously comment on and participate in elite culture. “I’m fascinated by the reasons art is purchased and the symbolism a painting acquires depending on the environment in hangs in,” says Dixon.