Others
FACTION Art Projects
June 22 – July 15, 2018
Private view: June 21
Gallery 8, 2602 Frederick Douglass Blvd, NY 10030
New York based FACTION Art Projects has announced an intimate three-person show, Others. Participating artists include Los Angeles based Mark Dutcher and Aaron Smith and UK based Andrew Mania.
The exhibition presents complex masculine identities that challenge historical depictions of strong, muscled men of stature.The works in this show portray a masculinity that is vulnerable, doubtful, idealized or pretty stimulating discussion around modern perspectives of masculinity.
These three artists portray alternative masculine identities using differing styles. Unexpected visual elements of one artists’ work morph into the others. Mark Dutcher’s use of the grid in his paintings resembles the lattice backdrops in Andrew Mania’s portraits.The postures of Aaron Smith’s older subjects reflect those of the young men in Mania’s.
Mark Dutcher
Joy, optimism, playful experimentation and determination are influential factors in Dutcher’s works. Colored glitter, silver and gold leaf are applied to his paintings with traditional materials like oil and acrylic paint.
A former punk musician, Dutcher’s practice reflects the rule breaking and DIY culture of Punk’s legacy. Dutcher’s process is evident in his work, such as the cut-out segments of canvas glued onto another or the roughly gilded sculptural works with silver and gold leaf flaking off his geometric constructions.
Film and literature influence Dutcher’s paintings.The Window and Prisoner series is a symbolic representation of the two prisoners in adjacent cells from Jean Genet’s film Un Chant d’Amour.The grid in these paintings allude to barred windows and abstracted curved elements are suggestive of the two side profiles of both men.
In the large Querelle paintings sweeping brushstrokes of black, white and grey are accompanied by small dabs of purple, green, yellow situated on the boundaries.Tighter brush strokes in the middle of the canvas reveal solitary figures.They appear troubled or contorted like the characters in Jean Genet’s novel Querelle of Brest.
Aaron Smith
Smith’s subjects are contemporary men, depicted alone and in pairs with poses that reference those of the male figures from Greek, Roman and Etruscan history.These powerful, bearded, masculine figures have long been associated with a masculine identity. Kouros, Herma and Sarcophagus of the Spouses, are mimicked by Smith’s modern men.The beard is used often to reflect its associations with masculinity. Smith is a self- confessed beard groomer.
Smith applies thick oils in high value pinks, reds, and blues to paint his figures which sit against monotone backgrounds of more muted colors.The subjects look important, they spring forward and are the only focus in his compositions.They mimic men of stature.
Andrew Mania
Andrew Mania is known for being the creator of the shirt depicting a portrait ofTimothée Chalamet worn by James Ivory at the Oscars earlier this year. Mania’s color pencil drawings of young men in this show are applied onto thin veneers of wood. Precise lines are used to define the head, eyes and hair; the clothing and backdrops to his subjects are constructed with solid blocks of color or scribbles reminiscent of textile patterns. In larger works Mania’s extends color onto the frame, large expanses of color are interrupted by a pair of staring eyes.
Mania’s portraits are often presented with abstracted elements, light bulbs, painted canvases, fabrics and photographs from Mania’s collection. Some works are shown in vintage frames that contrast with the youthfulness of the muses in the artist’s portraits.
There is stylized disco in Mania’s portraits reminiscent of 80’s album covers and poster boys of the New Romantics.Young men stare at the viewer with piercing twinkling blue eyes and rosy red lips, dressed in the latest fashionable attire. Mania often leaves bare veneers exposed in his compositions and where drawn on in color pencil the grain adds a textural quality.
Others will open with a private view on June 21, from 6-9pm and will run until July 15, 2018.
For more information please contact Anna Beketov, Damson PR, faction@damsonpr.com, +44 7948349224
http://factionartprojects.com
#factionartprojects @factionartprojects
Notes to editors:
Mark Dutcher lives in Los Angeles and has exhibited in Southern California since the early 1990s. He has had solo exhibitions at the Huntington Beach Art Center, Santa Monica Museum of Art, and Coagula Curatorial. Dutcher’s work has been in numerous group shows, including the California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art,Torrance Art Museum, the LA Weekly Annual and “Fox Building 103,” an installation organized by the Hammer Museum at Fox Studios.
Aaron Smith Lives in Los Angeles where he is now an associate chair at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. His work has been featured in solo exhibitions in galleries in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York and in group shows at galleries and museums nationwide including Laguna Art Museum, Frye Art Museum and Museum of South Texas. He was the first artist in residence at the J. Paul Getty Museum.
Andrew Mania lives and works in Bristol and is based at the prestigious Spike Island Studios. Recent solo exhibitions include Snapshot of a Collection at Spike Island Bristol (2018), Recent Portraits at Gallery Vallentin, Paris (2016) Portraits, BAD Brera Arte e Design, Francesco Pantaleone, Milan (2012) and Andrew Mania, Bloomberg SPACE, London (2009).
