For his first solo exhibition at PAPER, Dan Szor will create a new installation for the gallery space. Close Too Civilisation presents sketches, workings out, screen grabs and found imagery, alongside staged self-portraiture to create a flurry of self-exploration concerning the current state of the humanity at the dawn of a new decade.
Szor’s work is concerned with issues of self and place within hegemonic situations. He is consistently in a loop of defining and then undermining ideas of selfhood and masculinity.
Just like Sam Becket in the TV series, Quantum Leap, he uses cultural and social artefacts as artifice – to create relics of an imagined past, present and future.
His approach incorporates established and overlooked visual tropes, to create a flux of narrative perspectives and alternative histories, exposing how we consume culture as part of our everyday subjectivity.
He is also from Stoke on Trent, and loves chicken nuggets.
A former gymnast and child star, Dan was once a Beaver, a Cub, but never a Scout…
Szor’s work is concerned with issues of self and place within hegemonic situations. He is consistently in a loop of defining and then undermining ideas of selfhood and masculinity.
Just like Sam Becket in the TV series, Quantum Leap, he uses cultural and social artefacts as artifice – to create relics of an imagined past, present and future.
His approach incorporates established and overlooked visual tropes, to create a flux of narrative perspectives and alternative histories, exposing how we consume culture as part of our everyday subjectivity.
He is also from Stoke on Trent, and loves chicken nuggets.
A former gymnast and child star, Dan was once a Beaver, a Cub, but never a Scout…
Installation Views
About Dan Szor
Former art director and deputy editor of cult Nu Rave magazine SuperSuper –by 21, Dan Szor was helping define the mid noughties re-hash and sampling aesthetic. Burning brightly, yet fading fast, Dan left the magazine upon realising he could not afford any chicken from the local Chicken shop, but also wanting to pursue other artistic outlets. Dan moved to Peckham, South London living in various squats and studios, while undertaking an MA in Art and Politics at Goldsmiths College and contributing to various, exhibitions, journals, and magazines. Dan left London with artist his friend Jimmy Merris and retreated to the mountains of Snowdonia, forming Fatal Erection, a musical project and recorded two albums of lo-fi DIY music loosely based around the rise and fall of Rita Ora, which were released by Lithuanian Record Label, Sad Childhood Records. Dan now resides full time in Manchester, teaching on Fashion Image Making Styling at University of Salford and making art. Selected shows include: Turkey Burgler, Caustic Coastal (2018); A Lovers Discord, MOCA, London (2016); Queer: Post-Sexual, Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest, London (2015); Video Party #1, The Situation is Hopeless…, CUSS Group, South Africa (2013) and Lucky PDF, Frieze Foundation Projects, Commission (2011).
Former art director and deputy editor of cult Nu Rave magazine SuperSuper –by 21, Dan Szor was helping define the mid noughties re-hash and sampling aesthetic. Burning brightly, yet fading fast, Dan left the magazine upon realising he could not afford any chicken from the local Chicken shop, but also wanting to pursue other artistic outlets. Dan moved to Peckham, South London living in various squats and studios, while undertaking an MA in Art and Politics at Goldsmiths College and contributing to various, exhibitions, journals, and magazines. Dan left London with artist his friend Jimmy Merris and retreated to the mountains of Snowdonia, forming Fatal Erection, a musical project and recorded two albums of lo-fi DIY music loosely based around the rise and fall of Rita Ora, which were released by Lithuanian Record Label, Sad Childhood Records. Dan now resides full time in Manchester, teaching on Fashion Image Making Styling at University of Salford and making art. Selected shows include: Turkey Burgler, Caustic Coastal (2018); A Lovers Discord, MOCA, London (2016); Queer: Post-Sexual, Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest, London (2015); Video Party #1, The Situation is Hopeless…, CUSS Group, South Africa (2013) and Lucky PDF, Frieze Foundation Projects, Commission (2011).