Vilma Gold is pleased
to present the first London solo exhibition by Dan Attoe. Entitled
You Get What You Deserve the exhibition will comprise
of new paintings.
In Dan Attoe's work landscape plays a significant role and moreover
the American landscape. Attoe seems to use landscape as a psychological
backdrop that subtly reflects the actions of those who populate
them. Minute individuals often appear lost inside gigantic rural
stage sets whilst playing out recurring themes of sex, violence,
death and religion. Through his paintings Attoe explores some
of the tensions and anxieties that underlie American culture.
From 1997 to 2004 Attoe undertook the task of starting and completing
a single painting per day. These works were often small, around
15 cm square and meticulously detailed. This daily activity
makes Attoe's paintings appear like diary entries or newspaper
reports. In a recent interview he goes as far as describing
them as his 'dailies'. Further compounding this sense of daily
records Attoe fills the reverse of each painting with hand-written
poems or stories centered on recent events in his personal life
and the mass media. The painting entitled I Make Most of
this Shit Up depicts a waterfall and pool where scantily
clad figures, bathe, enjoy a picnic and perform gymnastics.
On the reverse of the work Attoe writes "This is a great place
even on a cloudy day. Based loosely on Snoqualmie Falls, Washington.
Those are mostly Douglas fir trees. I think the people are related."
The exhibition will include 10 of these diary-like entries.
You Get What You Deserve will also include three
new larger paintings ranging in size from 100 to 150 cm square.
Entitled 'Accretions' each of these works comprises a single
large dominant image that forms a backdrop for smaller interspersed
compositions. Where the 'dailies' appear as self-contained stories
the 'Accretions' are a growing together or adherence of parts
that would normally be separate. Here Attoe presents a complex
juxtaposition of disparate events that break with linear narrative.
In the 'Accretion' paintings Attoe seems to reverse the roles
of foreground and background. Accretion 32 depicts
a yellow American school bus traveling along a wintry forest
road. Inside this larger image Attoe lays on top a series of
smaller scenes that contribute to this simple scenario. High
above the school bus and in the centre of the painting two birds
rise up to the sky lifting in their beaks a painting or poster
of a heavy metal band. At the bottom Attoe depicts a temporary
rural monument to a teenage sensibility. A small alter-like
mound is strewn at its base with graffiti, jewelry and trophies
of youth.
Dan Attoe lives and works in Washington State, USA. He has exhibited
widely since graduating from the MFA program at University of
Iowa in 2004. Recent solo shows have been held at Peres Projects,
Los Angeles and 404 Arte Contemporaneous, Naples. His work has
also featured in numerous groups shows including Sioux City
Art Center, Iowa, John Connelly Presents, New York, Hiromi Yoshi
Gallery, Tokyo and Herbert Read Gallery, Canterbury. On the
occasion of his exhibition at Sioux City Art Center a catalogued
was published entitled Fictional Wonders / Real Hallucinations
. Attoe's work has also been recently featured in Art Forum,
The New York Times and Paper.
For further information or images please contact Sarah McCrory:
+44(0) 20 8981 3344 or: sarah@vilmagold.com |
Installation view
Dan Attoe
Dan Attoe
Everything Lasts Forever, 2005
oil on MDF panel
12.5 x 12.5 cm
Dan Attoe
Can't Stop Looking, 2005
oil on MDF panel
12.5 x 12.5 cm
Dan Attoe
All There Is, 2005
oil on MDF panel
17.5 x 12.5 cm
Dan Attoe
Accretion 31 (You get what you deserve), 2005
oil on MDF panel
61 x 122 cm
Dan Attoe
Accretion 32 (Everything is more complicated than you
think it is), 2005
oil on MDF panel
90 x 150 cm
Dan Attoe
Changing Like a Flower, 2005
oil on MDF panel
12.5 x 12.5 cm
Dan Attoe
Early Summer Strip Joint, 2005
oil on canvas
30 x 30 cm
Dan Attoe
I Make Most of this Shit Up, 2005
oil on MDF panel
17.5 x 17.5 cm
Dan Attoe
You can be one, I'll be the other, 2005
oil on canvas
30 x 30 cm
Dan Attoe
Remote Station, 2005
oil on MDF panel
17.5 x 17.5 cm
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