Tumuli- cool, 2019, acrylic on birch ply, 47.5” x 21”
September 7 – October 12, 2019
Alt_space gallery, 123 Douglas St, New Smyrna Beach, Florida Get Directions Opening Reception: Saturday, September 7, 4 – 7 PM Artists Talk: Friday, September 20, 11 AM
Join us for the opening of N o w [ ] h e r e by
Orlando artist Dana Hargrove on Saturday, September 7 between 4-7 PM in
the feature gallery. During this event, Arts on Douglas will be
featuring the smooth jazz stylings of TRio with Ron Gilotti on the
upright bass, Howard Post on the guitar and Tyler Rosenke on the drums.
Light refreshments will be served.
Tumuli- warm, 2019, acrylic on birch ply, 44” x 29”
About the Exhibition
Primordial Soup, acrylic on panel, 8 x 8 inches
For conceptual artist Dana Hargrove’s second alt_space exhibition at Arts on Douglas, she presents new work that expands upon an ongoing exploration of human/land relationships while also referencing related themes through vestiges from her Scottish heritage.
The title of this exhibition cleverly alludes to the fact that one space is all that separates nowhere from now here (and vice versa). Hargrove plays with this reference in subtle ways through each body of work presented in this exhibition.
In the series Primordial Soup, Hargrove alludes to the hypothesis that life originated from a solution rich in organic compounds in the primitive oceans of the earth. Hargrove explains that this series, “imagines the birth of civilization, drifting in on islands, full of hope and enterprise.” In these small-scale acrylic paintings, her signature clusters of simplified geometric forms seem to take on the role of building blocks as they appear to hover over “islands” of color signifying the land.
In another body of work titled Tumuli, Hargrove works on a larger scale to present bright and colorful geometric forms. These stacked arrangements are a loose reference to a tumulus—a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. They are also a reference to cairns, which are common in the mountainous regions of Scotland and in some cases may have originally been part of a tumuli. Hargrove elaborates that “These spatially illusionistic paintings offer a synthesized version of a cairn—an assembled mound of gathered rocks, hand-built stone by stone through the centuries by locals and visitors to memorialize their journey or commemorate and connect with the spirits of their ancestors. Tumuli plasticizes these ancient stone piles via saturated color, forced perspective, and simplified shapes to create a spare, simulated landscape.”
The next component of this exhibition, Lithic Scatter, references a scattered surface of cultural artifacts made up of lithic (i.e., stone) tools and chipped stone debris. Hargrove explains that the individual mixed-media paintings of Lithic Scatter “take their visual cue from the standing stones that dot the landscape of Scotland.” In each piece, a large stone-like shape sits atop a field of color. Within the boundaries of each stone, a network of stacked geometric shapes fills the space, adding the illusion of depth to an otherwise flat plane.
While many themes present themselves in this strikingly bold and thought-provoking body of work, Hargrove’s ongoing exploration of man’s relationship with the land is at the core. Hargrove elaborates, “Whether I am exploring the urban environment, with its homogenized grid of rectangular blocks, or examining how culture frames and re-frames landscape, I remain responsive to how our perceptions of the world and our sense of place are shaped by human design.”
Lithic Scatter, Gouache, acrylic and ink on illustration board, 11 x 14 inches
About the Artist
Dana Hargrove, born in
Edinburgh, Scotland, graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of
Art, Dundee University, Scotland with a Bachelor of Fine Art with Honors
in Painting. She continued her education in the USA with a Master of
Fine Art from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Hargrove is a
Professor of Studio Art at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida where
she now resides.
Represented by the Bridgette Mayer Gallery in
Philadelphia and Snap! in Orlando, she continues to exhibit her work
both internationally and nationally. She has recently exhibited her work
in Orlando at Cornell Fine Arts Museum and Orlando Museum of Art;
Deiglan Gallery, Akureyri, Iceland; Bridgette Mayer Gallery; and Saatchi
Gallery, London.
Hargrove has received several honors and
awards such as finalist for the 2017 Florida Prize, National Young
Painters Competition First Place Award, full artist-in-residence
fellowships at The Sam and Adele Golden Foundation for the Arts, NY;
Hambidge Center for the Arts, GA; Vermont Studio Center; CentralTrak,
TX; and Greatmore Studios in Cape Town, South Africa.
