 Evergreen, 2007 Oil on canvas, 50 x 60 inches Daniel Dove Assembly Jack Shainman is pleased to present "Assembly", the first New York solo exhibition by Los-Angeles based painter Daniel Dove. In 2006, Dove was included in "I Love the Burbs" at the Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY and is currently featured in "More is More: Maximalist Tendencies in Recent American Painting" at the Museum of Fine Arts at Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL. He earned his MFA at Yale University. This exhibition will be comprised of four to five medium-to large-scale canvases. In hybrids of seemingly generic urban settings and process-laden surfaces, Dove uses paint like a construction material, building up his canvases with combinations of highly-controlled rendering and spontaneous, painterly marks. His brushstrokes nearly manifest as objects, constantly shifting between real and imagined, flat and volumetric. Inspired by a particular setting, Dove takes photographs and then makes a series of preparatory sketches for each painting, often aided by a computer. On the canvas, in a series of controlled and chance-driven responses, each image is translated and unified through the painting process. Dove often fixates on a tangle of linear, winding forms - pipes, armatures, industrial equipment, and architecture. Sometimes tightly rendered, and at other times with variegated and visible drags of the brush, Dove's surfaces are, from a distance, deceptively empty of chance-driven marks. Conversely, up close, unencumbered drips and expressive marks explode on the surface, adding a layer of distress - or perhaps chaotic unrefinement - that is integral to the work. "Volcano", 2007, depicts a precarious stack of abandoned commercial signage, dripping with bright orange paint, against a backdrop of twisting pipes. Light streaming in from above, coupled with Dove's use of high-contrast light and shadow, suggests that the viewpoint is below ground level. In another work, entitled "Prop House", 2006, gas station signage is propped against the exterior of a brick factory, cast in the shadow of a network of large metal pipes. A concentric herd of Christmas deer armatures surrounds a tent lit from above by a lone street lamp in "Wireherd", a six by eight foot canvas from 2006. In these paintings, Dove focuses on two concurrent themes: city (specifically factory) settings and Christmas imagery, suggesting, in his own words, "a sense of transcendence and grandeur... rooted in banal consumerist artifacts." Through the use of varied styles and degrees of control, Dove manages to achieve this transcendence without adhering to a rigid system - as a result, the paintings are concurrently desolate and deeply optimistic. Exhibition: March 16 - April 14, 2007 Gallery hours: Tues-Sat 10 am - 6 pm Jack Shainman Gallery 513 West 20th Street USA-New York, NY 10011 Telephone +1 212 645 1701 Fax +1 212 645 83 16 Email info@jackshainman.com www.jackshainman.com |
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