Marc Dennis Paintings Featured as Part of Museum Group Exhibition in South Korea

NEW YORK, NY - Marc Dennis will have seven paintings included in a major group exhibition, entitled, Hyperrealism: Nothing is Static at the Daejeon Museum of Art in Daejeon City, South Korea opening September 4, 2015 and running through December 20, 2015. The exhibition is intended to showcase the talents of an array of international artists from over ten countries and four continents who have respectfully established themselves as leaders in their respective brand of hyperrealism.

One of Dennis' paintings included in the show is titled, "Venus and The Rabbit," a 2105, oil on linen painting measuring 36 x 36 inches, a striking image of a platinum rabbit pendant created by famous contemporary artist Jeff Koons, depicted large, with Beyonce, one of the most famous and iconic pop stars in history, reflected on its surface.

Art Info wrote, "Trompe l'oeil painting gets a decidedly modern twist in Marc Dennis' masterfully executed, frequently hilarious, hyper-real mashups of art historical references laden with issues of voyeurism and art world navel-gazing." Many questions arise from this image; is Beyonce perhaps Dennis' personification of a modern day Venus (after all, Dennis enthusiastically says he is a fan of hers), and the rabbit in its respective shininess is an object for our own narcissism? Maybe the rabbit is the trickster as portrayed in many non-Eurocentric cultures and therefore possibly depicting its own vanity while the iconic American Venus gazes upon her own reflection?

Art critic Shana Beth Mason, wrote in the 2015 spring issue of Art Voices, "Dennis is nothing if not frank and gregarious. He is a dead-ringer for Johnny Depp, a brusque, fast-talking sports fan raised outside of Boston, whose body of work has become one of contemporary art's most recognizable signatures." The painting, as in many of Dennis' works, reflect a little bit of ourselves though we are confronted with famous images of art and pop star culture playfully positing the notions surrounding our own physical interactions and relationships with art and quite possibly the artists himself.

ABOUT MARC DENNIS - Marc Dennis is an American artist known for his hyper-realistic paintings of subtly staged and slightly voyeuristic images of transformative possibilities that satirize and celebrate art, art history, and popular American culture. His paintings have been reviewed in the New York Times, Art News, Time Magazine, Vogue, Huffington Post, Jewish Week, Whitehot Magazine, Blackbook, and he was recently featured as the cover artist for Art Voices spring 2015 issue and Modern Painters "25 Artists to Watch" spring 2013 issue.

His works have been included in numerous group and solo exhibitions in New York City, London, UK, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and Seattle. His works are in numerous private and public collections, including those of John and Amy Phelan, Glenn and Amanda Fuhrman, Bill and Maria Bell, Richard and Kitz Goodman, Beth DeWoody, David and Jennifer Stockman, Carl and Donna Hessel, Larry Gagosian, Larry and Marilyn Fields, Nancy Rogers, The Neuberger Berman Collection, New York; The Flag Art Foundation, New York, NY; The Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin; The Springfield Museum of Art, Ohio, and the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California.

Dennis has received grants for his work from Intermedia Arts, the Warhol Foundation, the Pollock Krasner Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Born in Danvers, Massachusetts, he received his B.F.A. from Tyler School of Art of Temple University in Philadelphia, PA and his M.F.A. from The University of Texas at Austin. He, his wife, Rebecca, an aspiring fashion designer, and their two children, live and work in Brooklyn.