BAIK+KHNEYSSER is pleased to present The Golden City, a solo exhibition in Zürich, Switzerland, September 1 - 24, 2022.

Chad Attie’s work explores how history and memory shape the individual psyche in the present moment and suffuse the deeper structures we live in. The stories he tells in paintings, drawings, ceramics, sculpture, film, and photography explore the residual effects of trauma and how is seeps into the framework of our lives, depicting people, landscapes, and homes that have been permanently scarred by the past.

“Throughout my life, a major influence was the work of the painter Chaim Soutine, whose volatile - sometimes terrifying - compositions, raw brushstrokes and dynamic use of color had a lasting impact on me. Soutine’s brutal truthfulness, mixed with the emotional honesty I admire in Russian literature, laid the foundations for my own approach to difficult subjects such as personal relationships and family dynamics. Michail Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita” in particular became a touchstone for the way it enriched such storytelling with satire, absurdity, and humor.

Above all, though, I aim for each piece I make to have an inescapable sense of urgency and intensity. In the paintings, a heavy impasto approach to the application of oil paint creates a tactile immediacy, while the use of palette knives adds to the idea of history in the work as past layers of paint are uncovered or excavated, and others are buried. My films, meanwhile, almost always embody an element of danger. Often filmed in wild, hand-held style, they are made to evoke intimate, personal perspectives, with shots that place the viewer directly in the action. The locations in which they are shot are usually abandoned and there is a sense that by being there the viewer is intruding on a forbidden space. Moreover, because they are neglected, pain and loss looms in these places, even as a feeling of absurdity creeps in around the edges.”

The Last Island

In a series of paintings, sculptures, and collages collectively called “The Last Island”, wild landscapes and ruined structures convey the fragile notion of “home”. These works explore the idea that feelings of safety easily crumble in the face of life’s unpredictability and the vagaries of history.