Sasha Gordon Joins David Zwirner, Becoming Its Youngest Artist

Sasha Gordon, a painter known for works that envision herself in surreal scenarios, has joined David Zwirner, one of the world’s biggest galleries. At age 26, she is the youngest artist currently on the roster—and among the youngest represented by any gallery of David Zwirner’s stature.

Her David Zwirner deal will see her maintain representation with Matthew Brown, the trendy Los Angeles– and New York–based gallery her first-ever solo show, in 2021.

Gordon’s paintings draw on her own experiences as a biracial Asian woman. In 2021, she told Art in America that she felt as though she had to be a “certain type of Asian woman, a certain type of queer person, a certain type of body size,” and that her work reflects some of the anxieties associated with all that.

Some works by her have actively sought to refute stereotypes for Asian women while others have offered fantasy situations with dashes of humor.

The New York–based artist has had a fast ascent, memorably appearing in the 2022 Jeffrey Deitch group show “Wonder Women,” which featured an array of Asian American and diasporic women and nonbinary artists, while also having a solo show at that gallery simultaneously. Last year, she had solo exhibitions at Stephen Friedman Gallery and the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami. Currently, her work figures in a Jewish Museum focused on how figurative painters have navigated their identities using their art.

“I saw Sasha Gordon’s work for the first time late last year at the ICA in Miami and was floored by the power of those paintings,” dealer David Zwirner said in a statement. “I felt that I was in the presence of an artist of our time and for our time, an entirely new voice, a painter who is pushing the genre into uncharted territory. I’m excited for our first show together next year, and I am especially pleased that I can collaborate with Matthew Brown, one of the most talented gallerists of his generation.”

Zwirner’s gallery will bring Gordon’s work to Frieze London next month before staging a solo show by the artist in New York next September.

This is the second time in the past year that David Zwirner has taken on an artist so young, it re-set the benchmark for his roster. In February, the gallery brought on Emma McIntyre, who was 33 at the time. Her deal, too, was a form of co-representation, with McIntyre keeping up ties with Los Angeles’s Chateau Shatto gallery.