Craig Robins Collection
"Two of the Same Kind"

“Two of The Same Kind”, the 2022-2023 rotation of the Craig Robins Collection, highlighted the work of Marlene Dumas (born South Africa, 1953) and Jana Euler (born Germany, 1982), two artists whose drawings, paintings and sculptures engage with abject figuration, dark humor, and psychological fraught. Titled after Dumas’ 1993 namesake drawing diptych, the exhibition kicks off with two double silkscreened portraits by pop icon Andy Warhol (USA, 1928-1987). Commissioned in the 1980s, and on view in an exhibition context for the first time at Dacra, Warhol’s diptychs are included as special loans from the portrayed subjects, Joan Robins and Carol Soffer (respectively, Craig’s mother and mother-in-law). The inclusion of these works reveals the genealogy of a collecting practice, and a proximity to artists, that grounds Craig’s approach to contemporary art. The theme of dualism also threads through a generative work by Mike Kelley (USA, 1954-2012), whose chaste landscape in a mirrored bell shape recalls the artist’s childhood obsession with the image of an indigenous woman formerly depicted in Land O Lakes branding. Moreover, the recent acquisition of a double self-portrait by breakout talent Sasha Gordon (born USA, 1998) unfolds as a chief example in the exploration of sexual and racial ambiguity.