Dexter Dalwood (b. 1960)

Envisaging America's best-kept open secret, Dexter Dalwood constructs his version of Camp David as a truly virtual space. In creating the architecture of the presidential retreat, Dexter Dalwood doesn't present a unified picture, but rather a series of separate paintings within the painting. The bookshelves and lampshades are rendered as free-floating minimalist forms, while the landscapes viewed through the windows show two unrelated types of geography. Dexter Dalwood paints each element with an economical sense of 'flat-pack', alluding to theatre props and backdrops. In representing one of the most hallowed emblems of US national security, Dexter Dalwood devises his own spooky conspiracy theory: the possibility that Camp David might not exist at all.