Installation view. Courtesy of the gallery.
Andrew Dadson is currently on view at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles for his first exhibition at the gallery titled, “Waited”. “Waited” is a fitting title for this show, because I have been waiting for a fresh discourse on painting for a while. People claim that painting is dead, or project the idea that it’s a medium that makes its home now in art history and has minimal contributions to contemporary art. The reinvestigation of painting that Dadson endures shines through his practice and the work he completed for this exhibition.
Installation view. Courtesy of the gallery
Untitled "White/Red/Orange/Yellow/Green/Blue/Purple/Pink Re-stretched", 2013, (alternate view) oil on canvas, overall: 21 x 136.5 inches (53.3 x 346.7 cm). Courtesy of the gallery.
The paintings on view retract their initial operation of existing as a visual representation of a person, object, or scene. Pictorial renditions was the primary focus of painting for thousands of years, but this is not the path that Dadson has taken. He seems to be investigating the properties of paint and the materiality of its existence in the realm of art object production. This is an investigation shared by many artists through the previous waves of artistic movements but it seems to be a discourse seen seldom today. His initial contributions to his surface seem playful and open to the use of color, but their right to exist boldly on the canvas is overshadowed by the heavy use of white and black pigmented paint that censor the information from the viewer. It’s a shame that the curtains of white and black paint hang so heavily over the color beneath, but its overbearing presence on the surface becomes hypnotic, like staring at “The Rose” by Jay DeFeo. The accumulation of material on the surface transcends the work from painting and into the sculptural world. But in the end Dadson is painting for the sake of painting and that’s a genuine relationship that should always be remembered.
Black Lean Painting, 2013, (alternate view) oil on canvas, 75 x 96 inches (190.5 x 243.8 cm). Courtesy of the gallery
Black Lean Painting, 2013, (detail) oil on canvas, 75 x 96 inches (190.5 x 243.8 cm). Courtesy of the gallery.
Black Lean Painting, 2013, (detail) oil on canvas, 75 x 96 inches (190.5 x 243.8 cm). Courtesy of the gallery.
Find some time to visit this show before it closes March 23rd. For more information visit: www.davidkordanskygallery.com
Contributed by Gregory Ito
