napoleon gallery

Lost in Transit

A few shots of my work up at SOIL Artist Run-Gallery in Seattle, WA, part of the terrific group show Lost in Transit. Thank you Ricky Yanas for these great photographs!


:: Left to Right, Alexis Nutini, Douglas Witmer, Me (Inheritance), Me (Ocean), and Ezra Mauch ::


:: Inheritance, Lead and Fine Woodworking Magazines, 2015 ::


:: Left, Ocean, letterpress on paper, 2015 ::

Lost in Transit explores mythologies of disappearance, the anxiety of travel, and the precarious nature of man-made structures in the work of eighteen Philadelphia artists. Using H. John Thompson’s 2014 sculptural project Holding Our Own (2014), the focus of which is the legend of DB Cooper, the only unsolved airline hijacking in US history, as a jumping-off point, the members of each gallery were prompted to dig into their own bodies of work (new and old) to find formal and contextual similarities that would link them to this loaded subject. In doing so the exhibition acts as a kind of detective tale looking for clues, piecing together bits of information, and attempting to follow elusive threads of continuity and synchronicity within a diverse collection of styles and practices.

The exhibition includes pieces by Marc Blumthal, Marianne Dages, Christina P. Day and Ricky Yanas that engage in the distortion, breakdown, and absence of their subjects. Prints and sculpture by Alexis Granwell, Leslie Friedman,Terri Saulin Frock, and Tamsen Wojtanowski suggest complex and elusive languages that exist outside the realm of logic and rationality. A selection of suitcases made especially for Tiger Strike Asteroid Philadelphia’s space in December’s Artist-Run at The Satellite Show Miami Beach will also be included. These subversive objects hint at the tricky nature of contemporary navigation and travel while also referring to the gallery’s own institutional history.

Together, the works selected for this exhibition form a conceptual trajectory that moves viewers in and out of iconic and banal imagery, ethereal and hardedge forms, light and dark spaces, and into a search for something that may have never been there.

Artists: Todd Baldwin, Marc Blumthal, Mark Brosseau, Lewis Colburn, Christina P. Day, Marianne Dages, William DiBello, Leslie Friedman, Terri Saulin Frock, Alexis Granwell, Ezra Masch, Alexis Nutini, Joanna Platt, Kayla Romberger, H. John Thompson, Douglas Witmer, Tamsen Wojtanowski, Ricky Yanas

A couple more shots of the show in its entirety. The show looks incredible, I wish I could see it in person! Thank you to everyone at SOIL and Marc, Ricky, John, and Mark and everyone else who worked so hard to plan, install, and make it happen.



Shane Darwent: Southside All Stars

This month I am curating a solo exhibition of work by Shane Darwent at Napoleon Gallery. Shane and I met at Penland School of Crafts, we were both in the core fellowship program and were roommates. We collaborated on a series together titled Five a few years ago. In the last couple of years, I've been following his work with great interest, watching him combine the mediums of photography and sculpture in new ways. It's been a pleasure working with him to put this show together. Rachel White wrote an excellent essay for the exhibition, which you can read here.

The exhibition opens this Friday from 6-10pm (more info below). We hope to see you there!


Southside All Stars

A SOLO-EXHIBITION BY SHANE DARWENT, CURATED BY NAPOLEON MEMBER MARIANNE DAGES

In Southside All Stars, litter-dappled grass becomes a painterly celebration of grotesque beauty. Colorful, plastic still-lives are like empty sets, ripe with possible narratives. Darwent draws inspiration from the semi-urban landscape of his Chattanooga neighborhood and presents photographs and sculptures that encourage us to contemplate the role of material culture in our lives and in the lives of a community at the edge of opportunity. 
Opening Reception
First Friday, August 7th
6pm – 10pm
NAPOLEON
319 N 11th Street, 2L
Philadelphia, PA
Exhibition Dates: 8.7.2015 – 8.28.2015
Galllery Hours: Saturdays and Sundays 2pm – 6pm or by appointment

Geist Magazine Review of Distant Operator

A well-written and insightful review of Distant Operator by Evan Paul Laudenslager for Geist Magazine. I think the greatest experience of this show has been to have access to writer's perspective of what they seeing. I feel very close to this work, it can be difficult to talk about it. Reading these points of view is a rare and challenging thing. Thank you.

:: on the left, Aleut, on the right, White Lepiota ::

" A success of the work is an emphasis on variety of process. Dages has worked mainly in printmaking, photography, and book arts. These processes clearly influence the narrative display of the work, and reaching connections between pieces both aesthetically and in process is intuitive and enjoyable for the eye. The materiality of her pieces correlates to her love of books: bone, ink, lead, and thread all feature prominently. Even these objects reach a higher significance under Distant Operator’sthemes; the mortal utility of bone, the toxic allure of lead, or the permanence of ink. These executions are fluid and varied, charcoal rubbings and darkroom prints made without cameras and using only photographic chemicals become visually interchangeable while staying theoretically disparate. "

Read More HERE

- "MARIANNE DAGES EXPLORES MYTH, TRANSLATION IN DISTANT OPERATOR AT NAPOLEON GALLERY" by Evan Paul Laudenslager, Geist Magazine

:: handmade paper, carbon, gouache ::

Marianne Dages, Distant Operator: January 9 - January 25th @ Napoleon

Yesterday was the opening for my first solo exhibition, Distant Operator, at Napoleon Gallery in Philadelphia. Thank you so much to everyone who came for the opening and who came today! While I was gallery sitting, I took some images of the installation for those of you who are out of town, or those who would like a sneak peak. 

You can also read a wonderful and insightful essay written by book artist and linguist Sarah Hulsey on the work HERE.

The gallery will be open on weekends from 2-6 until January 25th or by appointment.
You can reach me at mdages at gmail dot com if you have any questions.

:: right side of the gallery ::

:: Sea Exercises ::

 :: Fragmented I ::

And details of the Distant Operator wall...







Show is up...

The show is up, Distant Operator opens tomorrow, at Napoleon Gallery. Thank you so much to everyone who helped make this happen, I hope to see you tomorrow night.

Opening Reception
Friday, January 9th
6pm – 10pm

NAPOLEON

319 N 11th Street, 2nd Floor
Philadelphia, PA

Exhibition Dates: 1.9.2015 – 1.30.2015
Gallery Hours: Saturdays and Sundays 2pm – 6pm or by appointment



Distant Operator

This month, I'm preparing for my first solo exhibition as a member of Napoleon Gallery in Philadelphia. I hope to see you, if you can make it, January 9th for the opening.


"Chance, repetition, and hidden names. In this series of works on paper and object assemblage, the artist acts as distant operator, finding the connection between esoteric myth and private thought."

Opening Reception
Second Friday, January 9th
6pm – 10pm

NAPOLEON

319 N 11th Street, 2L

Philadelphia, PA

Exhibition Dates: 1.9.2015 – 1.30.2015
Saturdays and Sundays 2pm – 6pm or by appointment


Oracles

I've been working on a project titled "Oracles" that combines digital stills with experimental writing pieces. The project emerged from an interest in the concept of "creative utterance", the ability to create by speaking specific words. The source text of all these pieces is the Egyptian Book of the Dead. To create these poems, this source text is run through translation software in dozens of languages to intentionally mistranslate them. Through this process spontaneous new content emerges. The results are unexpectedly lyrical and strikingly visual and the original text is completely transformed. The texts are then edited into short poems.

I would like to make these into an artist's book and video installation. Sight and sound shimmering in and out of focus. Interpreting the oracles.



Cataract

horses
come into sight 
as the stars 
come down 

it seems strange
this empty sky
an insomnia
of whiteness

a cataract
of gold
drawn
from the well