Fusebox is pleased to announce its upcoming exhibitions, POP-AGENDA: SIEMON ALLEN and DOMINIC MCGILL in the main exhibition space; and JOSEPH DUMBACHER/JOHN DUMBACHER: ONE TO ONE in the project space. Both exhibitions openedSaturday, March 27 and run through May 8, 2004. In separate large-scale installations, Siemon Allen and Dominic McGill investigate popular culture as a vehicle for propaganda. In their most recent works, Joseph and John Dumbacher continue to transcend the routine territory of painting.
In Allen’s second exhibition at Fusebox, the South African-born artist continues his use of appropriated materials—in this instance European and South African comics—to explore the complexities of global politics. In McGill’s first exhibition at Fusebox, the British-born artist will present a 7 by 65-foot suspended panoramic drawing. The exhibition will be accompanied by an essay by Dominic Rushe, a US correspondent for The London Sunday Times based in New York.
Siemon Allen and Dominic McGill are both artists who have chosen America as their home and whose work looks at popular culture and political agendas both here and in their home countries… In his latest work, Allen has used two of Hergé’s classic Tintin adventures, "Land of Black Gold" and "The Red Sea Sharks;" and a South African photo-comic from the 1970s called "Naglegioen" – Night Legion in Afrikaans. Allen uses the Tintin adventures to take a timely look at Western attitudes toward the Middle-East and Arab culture…"Naglegioen" is a more overtly political work, set in Angola in the 1970s… Language, history and politics also fuel the work of Dominic McGill… Like a modern-day Bayeux tapestry, McGill’s latest drawing, "Project For a New American Century," is an historical panorama. This looped drawing stretches across 60 feet, taking in Hiroshima, the Cold War and more recent history. With no clear beginning or end as the viewer follows the drawing’s narrative, he is led on ever more complicated paths.
Dominic Rushe, March 2004
Siemon Allen is currently based in Richmond, VA. His recent project, Newspapers, was first presented at Fusebox in Washington, DC in 2002 and was included in The American Effect at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 2003. Another version of the piece was included in the group exhibition, A Fiction of Authenticity, which opened last fall at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis and will travel to several other venues.
New York-based Dominic McGill gained attention as a public performance artist in the 1990s, as half of the Standard and Poor collective. He has also had a solo exhibition at Debs & Co. in New York, and participated in group exhibitions at P.S. 1 and Exit Art in New York, and in the Up & Coming curated program at ARCO ’03 in Madrid.
In their most recent works, Joseph and John Dumbacher continue to transcend the routine territory of painting. Earlier works comprised of pigment and stainless steel have been further refined and are presented alongside pieces fabricated entirely of stainless steel. Despite their economy of design, the Dumbachers’ works are rich in references to modern and contemporary painting, sculpture, and architecture. The ‘paintings’ allude to both post-painterly abstraction and minimalism in their use of monochromatic surfaces and non-contextualized form.
Joseph and John Dumbacher have studios in Los Angeles and New York. Their solo exhibitions include Patricia Faure Gallery in Los Angeles and the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia in Virginia Beach. The Dumbachers’ 2001 solo exhibition at Fusebox opened concurrently with their first museum exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Group exhibitions include Art Positions at Art Basel Miami Beach; Patricia Faure Gallery in Los Angeles; and Studio La Citta in Bologna. Their work is also included in the permanent collections of The Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art in Kansas.
IMAGE
Joseph and John Dumbacher
line 194, 2003
stainless steel, stabilized dry pigment
3.63" * 7.0" * 1.88"
Related Links:
