Patrick Quarm: Phantoms in Familiar Terrains
New York, NY – albertz benda is pleased to announce Patrick Quarm’s second solo exhibition with the gallery, Phantoms in Familiar Terrains. On view from December 12, 2024, through February 1, 2025, this exhibition marks the gallery’s first presentation with the transnational artist in four years.
In Phantoms in Familiar Terrains, Quarm presents a new series of works that reimagine the body as a landscape for social expression. He describes the body as “a space where histories are written through our movements and interactions.” Quarm's work explores how hybrid identities evolve as people navigate diverse spaces, reflecting the traces—like phantoms—they leave behind in their wake.
Central to Quarm's practice is the notion of multiplicity; after attending Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana and earning his Master of Fine Arts from Texas Tech University, Quarm has had to relocate his studio practice across the globe time and time again. Now based in Takoradi, Ghana, the artist reflects on how these experiences have enriched his creative process and deepened his exploration of cultural identity. The subjects of Quarm's works are drawn from his own life—friends, family, and colleagues—each embodying rich, layered stories of cultural complexity and diversity. He emphasizes that “these experiences shape who they are and how they exist in the world.”
Quarm incorporates African print fabric into his paintings, a medium imbued with deep political and cultural significance. This fabric, which originated in Indonesia and was brought to West Africa through trade, resonates with specific West African traditions while engaging in a broader dialogue about global cultural exchange, hybridity, and the interconnectedness of identities across borders.
Through techniques of layering, cutting, and erasure, the artist crafts a visual landscape where identity is continuously formed, reshaped, and obscured. In his multidimensional works, he creates a space to meditate on what it means for individuals to exist within a shared social fabric.