| Erin Cluley Gallery 150 Manufacturing Street, Suite 210, Dallas, USA NIC NICOSIA: homemade stories: flowers FEBRUARY 18 – MARCH 25, 2023 Opening Reception: Saturday February 18, 4:00-7:00PM See exhibition preview here >>> Image: Nic Nicosia, homemade stories #11 (orchid and fading roses B’s 72 bd), 8.18-8.31.2022, 2022, Archival inkjet, 60 x 40 inches. Gaining prominence in the early 1980s, Nic Nicosia has garnered international acclaim for his staged photography. A relentless experimenter, Nicosia spent the last four decades diversifying his practice into film, sculpture, and collage. “I’ve never been completely comfortable being identified as a photographer” said Nic Nicosia, “My formal training and degree were in television and film; therefore, my approach to making art – as in motion pictures – is to use whatever material and medium necessary to realize the concept and story. This could require a sculptural work, collage, or drawing– as well as a camera.” Across media, his work displays a steadfast interest in narrative. Nicosia works with the eye of a skilled auteur and cinematographer, capturing the overlooked intricacies of everyday scenes and objects. Erin Cluley Gallery presents the premiere of the latest installment in Nicosia’s homemade stories series. Against the background of his robust mid-century home, homemade stories: flowers, explores the fragile lifecycles of his floral characters. Nicosia uses his newest subjects to symbolize the natural inconsistencies of time spent during pandemic isolation. Blooming magnolias, orchids and tulips bring out the brilliance of the otherwise neutral palette in his home furnishings; Nicosia’s selective use of bright color conjures those brief moments of beauty and inspiration we experience among our everyday mundanities. homemade stories: flowers will include Nicosia’s newest photocollages, referencing his style seen in his work pre -1979 while featuring fresh subjects and bringing the narrative full circle. In addition, the exhibition will feature sculptural objects and drawings relating to the photoworks. Through them, Nicosia maintains his characteristic deadpan surrealist style and draws inspiration from Dadaist collage, cinematic composition, and homemade crafts. About the Artist Nic Nicosia was born in 1951 in Dallas, TX. He received a BS in 1974 in Radio-TV-Film from The University of North Texas with a concentration in motion pictures. He subsequently applied his cinematic mind-set for the making of a still image and is recognized as a pioneer of the staged photographic movement that came into prominence in the early1980’s. Following a 1982 solo exhibition at Artists Space in New York, he was included in the 1983 Whitney Biennial, and the Guggenheim’s 1983 Exxon National Exhibition. He has been included in several biennials including Documenta IX in 1992, and a second Whitney Biennial in 2000. In 1999 the Contemporary Arts Museum, in Houston, launched a 20-year retrospective of Nicosia’s work; Nic Nicosia, Real Pictures 1979-1999. A 2nd major survey of his work was exhibited at CASA in Salamanca, Spain, in 2003. Museums that have acquired Nicosia’s work include: The Guggenheim Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum, The Los Angeles County Museum, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, The Dallas Museum of Art, and The Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Grants and awards include a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant in 1984, Awards in the Visual Arts -AVA 11 in 1991, and The Tesuque Foundation, Artist Fellowship Grant in 1998. The University of Texas Press produced a major career retrospective, Nic Nicosia, released in October of 2012. The book includes over 160 images and film stills from 1980 through 2011. Erin Cluley Gallery 150 Manufacturing Street, Suite 210, Dallas, USA IN BLOOM A group exhibition of floral-inspired works. DAVID BATES MARGARET EVANGELINE RILEY HOLLOWAY RACHEL LIVEDALEN JOHN MIRANDA NIC NICOSIA MAGDALENA RANTICA ANTONIO TUROK ZEKE WILLIAMS FEBRUARY 18 – MARCH 25, 2023 Opening Reception: Saturday February 18th, 4:00-7:00PM See the exhibition preview here >>> Image: Margaret Evangeline, Yellow Roses Make Her Cry, 2019, Oil on canvas, 72 x 96 inches. Cluley Projects 2123 Sylvan Avenue, Dallas, USA DRIGO: FLOWERS IN THE DARK Through MARCH 18, 2023 Gallery hours: Wed-Sat 12-5pm See available works here >>> Image: Drigo, Flowers In The Dark, Installation view, February 2023. Drawing on personal experience, Drigo’s creative practice explores the intersections of contemporary graphic design, ancient Mexican mythology, skater culture and spirituality. The Chicano artist’s laid-back and distinctly graphic style eases into the grooves of whatever brick wall, concrete slab or canvas he is working on. An elaborate narrative traverses Drigo’s professional work — characters known as “Travelers,” depicted with vibrant skin and mythic headdress, roam a dreamlike multiverse created from the mind of the artist himself. Through these characters, the artist develops an effusive lexicon, which is at once fantastical and familiar. In his newest exhibition, Flowers in the Dark, Drigo expands his narrative universe. The artist’s newest work melds a surreal visual language with scenes of recovery and spiritual redemption. Inspired by the Cereus repandus or Peruvian Apple Cactus and its nocturnal bloom, Drigo explores the tenuous process of healing through and from adversity. In their latest iterations, the “Travelers,” maintain a calming stoicism against strange and alluring landscapes. Flowers in the Dark, depicts these otherworldly figures as champions of their emotional and physical renewal. Despite their challenges, the “Travelers,” find ways to bloom beautifully in the night. Flowers in the Dark features a series of new paintings by the artist. In these works, Drigo displays his command of monumental and intimate scenes rendered in colorful, balanced compositions. The artist’s newest paintings further explore his unique combination of ancient Mexican culture, new age spirituality and modernist design. About the Artist Eric Rodriguez, aka “Drigo”, is a North-Texas based, Chicano artist. He received his AAS in Graphic Design from Collin County Community College in 2016. Rodriquez’s artistic practice draws from his graphic design background as well as Mexican American and Skater cultures. Since 2016, Rodriquez has garnered critical and commercial acclaim for his mural work. In 2021, he was commissioned to paint a mural on one side of the Broadway Chapter Apartments parking garage. Spanning 5,000 sq ft. and five-stories, Rodriquez’s work is currently the largest public mural in Fort Worth, TX. He has collaborated with local and global companies including Zumiez, Samsung Mobile, Essentia and IBM. In 2016, clothing and lifestyle brand, Zumiez, invited Rodriquez to create a collaborative mural in Oahu, Hawaii to promote their new Converse Cons skate shoe line. In 2019, Zumiez commissioned him to design and paint the 4DWN Skatepark for the brand’s Best Foot Forward Finals. In 2020, Rodriquez collaborated with Samsung Mobile for Hispanic Heritage Month where his work was displayed on prominent NYC billboards in Times Square and One World Trade. His work has been featured in D Magazine, Glasstire, Fort Worth Magazine and other online publications. Rodriquez is currently working on a permanent installation to be displayed at Meow Wolf’s Grapevine, TX location opening in 2023. |
