The Public Trust is pleased to present Austin-based, Matthew Mahon, in his debut solo exhibition UNDER. A reception for the artist will be held at the gallery on Saturday, April 26th from 6-9PM.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
From 1990-1992, Philip-Lorca diCorcia photographed male prostitutes in Los Angeles near Santa Monica Boulevard. For the portrait, the men were paid a fee comparable to what they would charge for their services. There was nothing random about the encounters, as diCorcia carefully composed the scene before approaching his subject. The tension between the subject and diCorcia’s heavy direction of the shoot, created 21 images that, in 1993, would be exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in the artist’s first solo museum exhibition, Hustlers.
The Hustlers series was an early inspiration for Matthew Mahon. Like diCorcia, he paid his subjects their rate for services to create images. However, Mahon’s, interest in the subject stems from an encounter he had with a prostitute in his formative years, when he awkwardly lost his virginity at the age of 14.
The clearest delineation between these 2 bodies of work, is a level of intimacy that Mahon has with his subjects, a residual affection which lingers from his first sexual experience, and that the women were given no direction. They were photographed doing what they wanted to do, projecting themselves as they would like to be seen. The result is a series of striking images that invoke humor, camp, irony and sorrow.
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The Public Trust presents WORD!, a group exhibition that further explores the intersection of text and image in contemporary art. Featuring work by William Binnie, Mel Bochner, Matthew Cusick, Cody Hudson, Ryan Humphrey, Taro-Kun, Lawrence Lee, and Lucia Simek. The exhibition will be on view until April 19, 2014.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
The role of text in art, or even as art, is not an unconventional idea. Where the consideration now lies, is how different we experience text than we did 5-10 years ago. Texting, hash-tagging, twitter, tumblr, Facebook etc. have altered the English language; truncating it and reducing short phrases to acronyms such as BRB, WTF, OMG, NSFW and many others. As advertising once inundated us with printed and digital imagery, equal efforts are being made to shape so many aspects of our life in 140 characters or less. Thanks to smartphones, text communication has become prevalent in all aspects of life. Places like the grocery store, the gym, bathrooms, our cars etc, that were previously void of text-based communicative intrusion, are now hotbeds for it. The ubiquitous nature of text in our lives, is precisely what makes contemporary art, dealing with text, so relevant and important. It calls our attention to the one thing that has been the foundation of our society, and despite it’s overwhelming presence, is largely invisible.
Ryan Humphrey, Tapes, 2013. Acrylic on canvas, 7 parts, 48x60x2 3/4 in. overall. Image Courtesy of DCKT Contemporary.
Favio Moreno: The Metaphysical
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 25, 2014 (6-9 PM)
On view through March 1, 2014
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
In this latest body of work, Favio Moreno turns his focus inward with The Metaphysical, a series of small panel paintings depicting the vital organs of the human body as gems and crystal objects. Moreno uses these images as symbols of beauty, while hinting at the inherent fragility of life. The Metaphysical offers the viewer continued insight into Moreno’s ideas about existence utilizing themes of life, death, sickness and the resilience of the human body and spirit.
ABOUT FAVIO MORENO
Favio Moreno is a painter, printmaker and designer working under the moniker The Bodega Negra. Moreno has cultivated a visual language drawing from an array influences including, Mexican culture, Catholic iconography and contemporary design. His work continues in the tradition of Hard-edge painting with an extremely refined sense of color. The artist lives and works in Dallas, Texas.
thebodeganegra.com
The Public Trust and MatrimonEy Clothing in collaboration with Blakely Dadson will release 2 All That Glitters t-shirts accompanied by an encore presentation of this series of paintings and a pop up shop featuring MatrimonEy Clothing and Roi’al Bijoux This is a one night only event. There will be complimentary valet parking and cocktails (for 21+ guests). Please join us after the event for Pop That with special guests THE PARTY.
Please RSVP here for this event.
We are pleased to announce the opening of Portraits of a Ninja, the latest body of work by Portland-based Artist, Blakely Dadson. The exhibition opens to the public on Saturday, December 14, 2013 (6-9PM). It will be on view through January 18, 2014.
About the Exhibition
Blakely Dadson returns to The Public Trust for his second solo exhibition with the gallery. Portraits of a Ninja, is comprised of 5 mixed media works on paper and a collection of small scale drawings featuring the embattled Dancehall Reggae DJ, Ninjaman. Reggae themes and subject matter have been woven into the rich narratives of Dadson’s work throughout his career, but this body of work focuses entirely on this controversial figure, and in its process, challenges the tenets of portraiture. Ninjaman is a master of self-presentation, and the arrogant bravado and lyricism that makes a Dancehall DJ. As a legend of the genre, folklore surrounds him as a figure, and therefore beckons the question of what is truth and what is fiction. Dadson mirrors this through his process, which started with a series of ink wash drawings on paper. These drawings were scanned and digitally manipulated and collaged with other drawn and photographic elements. The pieces were then subsequently reproduced as chromira prints, that the artist then hand painted with an airbrush, utilizing vintage photo retouching techniques, along with impasto applications of acrylic paint. The final result is a series of trompe l’oeil images where the blurred line between digital and analog is as seamless as the fables of the Ninjaman.
About the Artist
B. 1978, San Jose, California. Blakely Dadson received his MFA from Texas Christian University in 2005 and his BFA from the California College of the Arts in 2002. He’s exhibited across the country and been reviewed in a variety of publications and is a recent graduate of Wieden + Kennedy’s WK+12 program. In addition to his studio practice, he is an art director for The Great Society. He lives and works in Portland, Oregon.
lordblakely.com
IMAGE: Blakely Dadson • One Drop, 2013 • mixed media on paper • 41x30 in.
Please join us for an artist talk with Misty Keasler on her latest exhibition, Black Box, presented by The Public Trust in association with PDNB Gallery. Keasler will discuss the evolution of this work, the process as well as it’s place within the scope of her acclaimed documentary projects. Beverages and light bites will be served. This exhibition will be on view through November 16th.
The Public Trust, in association with PDNB Gallery, is pleased to present Black Box, an exhibition of photographs by Dallas-based photographer, Misty Keasler. The gallery will host a reception for the artist on Saturday, October 19, 2013 from 6-9 PM.
Artist Statement About the Exhibition
I have spent a greater part of my life curious about taxidermy, simultaneously repelled and drawn to it. I began to dissect the subject in every way imaginable over a period of several years and the resulting piece is several very formal portraits of the foam armament of modern taxidermy that fill a room. The title references this unknown element of taxidermy, as a black box is a technical term for a device, system or object when it is viewed in terms of its input, output and transfer characteristics without any knowledge required of its internal workings. Black box is also a term for experimental theater consisting of a simple unadorned performance space, usually a large square room with black walls. These photographs cross discipline boundaries and borrow from both sculpture and the history of painting. I leaned heavily on the Dutch masters and the classic odalisques for inspiration when making these formal portraits. The base of the work already exists in the world in fairly prolific, common places (it is easy enough to encounter taxidermy) but we aren’t accustomed to seeing the hairless amoebic forms here. They are simultaneously lifelike and at the same time they never look like real things in the world. So much of photography is about projection and these photographs evoke sympathy and confrontation from the viewer while at the same time remaining completely empty since we know they’re inanimate objects. There is an element of false recognition between the viewer and object – the pieces seem familiar but they aren’t, at least they are nothing I know in ordinary life. The piece reverses the traditional human/animal power play of taxidermy and the viewer becomes the object of the gaze at every angle. All the prints are life size, 1-to-1 in scale.
About Misty Keasler
Misty Keasler’s work focuses on intimate portraits of people, the spaces they occupy and interesting objects. Projects include orphanages in Russia, garbage and e-waste dumps in several countries, her own family, taxidermy and most notably the Love Hotels of Japan, which was the subject of her first monograph published by Chronicle Books and accompanied by a solo museum show. Her work is included in the permanent collections of Museum of Fine Art in Houston, the Dallas Museum of Art, The Amon Carter, The Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Art in Japan, and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. She holds an undergraduate degree from Columbia College as well as an MFA from Bard College. She lives and works in Dallas, Texas.
mistykeasler.com
The Public Trust is pleased to announce the first major solo exhibition in Dallas by William Binnie. Binnie’s research interests as of late have turned towards the use of militarized drones (unmanned aerial vehicles). “My fascination with the drone is one of both awe and fear. It is not so much the drone itself that interests me, but that the drone is a potent and timely manifestation of the fear and anxiety of a secret war, concerns regarding transparency, governmental deception, and that we, as citizens and civilians, are all implicated in this situation. The drone serves as a symbol of this collision of physical removal and psychological proximity that embodies this new variety of warfare.” These research interests stem from previous works exploring modern methods of post-colonial imperialism, conquest, and the complexity of power. “Dominance over another is seldom restricted to brute force but is just as much a psychological and visual exercise.”
above image: William Binnie, Crux, installation view
Want an original by William Binnie? Just name your price
The night of the opening, the back wall of the gallery will be filled with small drawings and paintings, many of which have never been seen outside the artist’s studio. These works will be sold through a blind bidding system, where patron’s name their price and the highest bidder wins. After the opening all of the remaining works will be set to their market value.
above image: William Binnie, studio
About William Binnie
Influenced as much by the gritty aesthetics of punk, hardcore and metal as by more formal modes of art-making, William Binnie’s work is marked by a macabre sense of humor and tongue-in-cheek over-seriousness. His work is at once stark, sober, and oftentimes grim, yet rich, delicate and lush. The work is often shrouded in a sensual gloom, where morbidity, death, and decay are balanced by a vibrant and vital, if nihilistic, spirit.
For more information visit williebinnie.com
