We are pleased to announce American artist Joshua Nathanson's first European solo exhibition. Froth, the title of the show, references Henri Bergson's essay Laughter, in which the acrid foam of an ocean wave is used as a metaphor to describe the fundamental quality of humor. In this body of work Nathanson revisits the theme of seaside recreation on the California coast but within a new framework – here we witness the fever dream of one of his characters as he lies on the beach in the hot shade.

Nocturnal absurdity eclipses diurnal banality and a surrealist fantasy ensues. Using a high-keyed color palette Nathanson reimagines the painterly strategies of artists such as James Ensor and Philip Guston through a common cast of allegorical players: the clown, the frog, the city, the ocean and the dark plume of pollution. Together these paintings function as a disjointed comic strip where narratives ebb and flow across the landscape like scenes from a Beckett novel. An intense melancholy drives the prevailing narrative as a disheartened man attempts to return to a state of naive joy and youth.

Joshua Nathanson was born in 1976 in Washington, DC and lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Nathanson had a solo exhibition at Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, CA in 2015. Selected group shows: ARNDT, Singapore, Four81, New York, 356 S. Mission, Los Angeles, Pepin Moore, Los Angles, CA, "Takashi Murakami’s Superflat Collection - From Shohaku and Rosanjin to Anselm Kiefer" at the Yokohama Art Museum, Yokohama. Upcoming exhibition: solo show at Kaikai Kiki Gallery, Tokyo.