Review: Bad boy artist Craig Drennen takes on Shakespeare’s “Timon of Athens”

Craig Drennen is a significant and respected artist who is also a proverbial bad boy, constantly testing the viewer. He uses his paintings and installations to poke a hole in the fabric of life and art. Of course, many important artists have used provocation as part of their discourse, from Duchamp’s urinal (Fountain, 1917) to Maurizio Cattelan’s banana, which was duct-taped to the wall at Art Basel in Miami and sold for $120,000 in 2019.

Drennen is part of this tradition, engaging in a serious dialogue of how far he can push and prod the viewer.

First Acts, at Atlanta Contemporary through May 15, masks required, is a mini retrospective of Drennen’s art culled from 15 years of work beginning in 2007 when he was a studio artist at Contemporary. The title refers to his use of Shakespeare’s little-known play Timon of Athens, a tragicomedy. His oeuvre could also be said to belong to that genre, combining in-your-face comedy and raucous visual jokes that contain an underlying darkness, all with admirable painting technique.

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