Grady Gordon’s monotype prints are primal, sometimes strangely adorable, and, on occasion, fall into the I-want-to-look-but-I-don’t-want-to-look category also inhabited by tumors with teeth. The Oakland artist’s previous works were inspired by Pueblo kachina dolls, depictions of cosmological spirits in everyday objects, and Japanese Yōkai, supernatural beings often represented in woodblock prints. The works in Gordon’s solo exhibit ”You Remind Me of Someone I’ve Never Met” opening tonight at Denver, Colorado’s Gallery 51 are inspired by the Scandinavian iteration of the spiritual dimension, vardøger. Vardøger is the presence of a (live) person’s spirit, as in blurred movement or the sound of footsteps, before the person arrives, producing a sort of déjà vu. The black-ringed heads are like spiritual sonic boom, when the body catches up with the vardøger.
Grady Gordon’s ”You Remind Me of Someone I’ve Never Met” is on view at Gallery 51 @ The Buffalo Exchange, 51 Broadway Denver, Colorado 80203.
-Kendall George
