Captivating yet abhorrent. Two sides of the same coin in today’s money. There has always been a darker side to the gloss of popular culture — rarely has it been so visible. The fading veneer of the American dream acts as Jordan Wolfson’s muse; the New York born artist’s technology-heavy works exposing the digitalisation of society, challenging the loss of innocence.

Currently underway at Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum is a two part exhibition, each dominated by a mammoth animatronic installation. First up — and showing until 29 January under the title Manic / Love — is Colored sculpture (2016); exposed in all its challenging, violent creepiness at David Zwirner New York last summer. The artist’s first animatronic work forms the show’s second coming — Truth / Love — Female figure (2014) a frenetic hyper-sexualised take on the pop world’s repugnant divas; ‘an endless ballet of watching and being watched’, as the grotesque masked creation gyrates uncomfortably in front of a mirror.

A new video installation — Riverboat Song (2016) — accompanies part two, which opens 18 February, whilst a selection of video works and digital paintings run alongside Wolfson’s troubling chained boy in Manic / Love.

Jordan Wolfson Manic / Love continues until 29 January, Truth / Love runs 18 February — 23 April at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

@Stedelijk

Jordan Wolfson, Colored sculpture, 2016
Mixed media. Overall dimensions vary with each installation. Collection LUMA Foundation
Courtesy the artist, Sadie Coles HQ, London and David Zwirner, New York, Photo: Dan Bradica

Jordan Wolfson, Female Figure, 2014
Mixed media. Overall dimensions vary with each installation
Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner, New York. Photo: Andreas Laszlo Konrath

Jordan Wolfson, Colored sculpture, 2016
Mixed media. Overall dimensions vary with each installation. Collection LUMA Foundation
Courtesy the artist, Sadie Coles HQ, London and David Zwirner, New York, Photo: Dan Bradica