(Post transferred, original content posted Sept 25, 2017)
I’m delighted to announce the exhibition of a brand new body of work, opening Oct 7th at Tinney Contemporary in Nashville, TN.
This Land Was Not Your Land | Charcoal & Graphite on Paper | 30in x 52.5in
The collection of 24 drawings comes out of my search for an understanding of new surroundings after relocating to Tulsa, OK from San Francisco at the beginning of 2017 to participate in the year-long Tulsa Artist Fellowship.
Welcome to the Orange West examines the historical and cultural events that shaped Westward Expansion in the United States at the turn of the 20th Century. Through the lens of abandoned and decaying advertising littering the landscape along Route 66, the exhibition focuses on the sociological factors surrounding Manifest Destiny. Contrasted with renderings of historical moments central to the formation of the American West, the works explore the ways in which the United States has been shaped by, for better and worse, a deeply nostalgic relationship with Westward Expansion and the idea of the pioneer.
(crop) sed Cars (The Working Man’s Friend) | Charcoal & Graphite on Paper | 92in x 60in
Most particularly, the drawings speak to the juxtaposition between history and nostalgia. We are in the midst of a cultural moment that sees many Americans hoping to return the country to their own individual understanding of its past; Welcome to the Orange West is an exploration of that past, and how our fascination with its glamour continues to shape decisions that affect our future.
Then Your Prairies Can Be Covered In Speckled Cattle, 1-15 (After Eadweard Muybridge, 1883) | Charcoal & Graphite on Paper, 2017
The finished animation will be projected opposite the drawings.
”These men (professional buffalo hunters) have done more in the last two years, and will do more in the next year, to settle the vexed Indian question, than the entire regular army has done in the last forty years. They are destroying the Indians’ commissary. And it is a well known fact that an army losing its base of supplies is placed at a great disadvantage. Send them powder and lead, if you will; but for a lasting peace, let them kill, skin and sell until the buffaloes are exterminated. Then your prairies can be covered with speckled cattle.”
Philip Sheridan, General in Chief of the U.S. Army, 1867-1883
(L) Sirloin Stockade | Charcoal & Graphite on Paper | 27.5in x 44in (R) New York Cafe Hookah Lounge | Charcoal & Graphite on Paper | 39in x 44in
Welcome To The Orange West will be on view Oct 7 - Nov 11, and I’ve attached a full show preview below. Please contact Tinney Contemporary Gallery Director Sarah Wilson (sarah@tinneycontemporary.com) with inquiries.
UPCOMING:
Dec 2017 | Context Miami with Hashimoto Contemporary | Miami, FL
Jan 2018 | Supersonic Electronic Invitational #6 | New York, NY
April 2018 | Solo Exhibition | Galleri Ramfjord | Oslo Norwaya