| Oct 15 - Nov 16, 2002 | |
During October and November, George Adams Gallery will present the work of Chicago artist Don Colley. Entitled The Turkish Knot, the exhibition will feature a series of glazed tiles, plastic scratchboards, and sketchbook drawings. This is Don Colley's debut exhibition in New York. The title of the exhibition, The Turkish Knot refers to a knot without a discernible beginning or end. Colley's use of the term is an allusion to the complexity of inter- and intra-cultural relationships. He represents these ideas in the form of extremely detailed drawings and paintings, rendered in a comic-book aesthetic. The focus of this exhibition is a narrative series comprised of small-scale, colorfully glazed tiles depicting a violent clash between the people of a small town and a visiting carnival. For example, Turkish Knot: Lens 1 shows a young woman as seen from an extreme bird's eye view. Tightly holding a gun, she is surrounded by bloodied carnival workers. In the related piece Turkish Knot: Lens 3 a clown figure dressed in an outlandish policeman costume stands amidst broken bricks, shards of glass, and pools of blood. With a nod to conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East, Colley's metaphorical narrative plays out the eruption of tension within a poly-cultural society. Along with the tile paintings, the exhibition will also include several works in which the artist has incised fine lines into laminated sheets of colored plexiglass. These scratchboard drawings explore similar themes of social friction overwrought with a sense of impending violence. For example, Sweat Lodge a 12 x 13-inch acid yellow scratchboard depicts a pumpkin-head figure and two menacing snowmen interrogating a scarecrow, while in Blue Moan meticulously scratched into an electric blue plastic--a band of snowmen traverse a moonlit landscape. Also on view will be several double-sided pen and ink drawings taken from Colley's sketchbooks. Although juxtaposing numerous unrelated images on a single page, the sketches are as fully developed as the carefully detailed scratchboard drawings and tile paintings. Born in 1954, Don Colley received his BFA from the University of Texas at Austin in 1980. His work has been exhibited widely in the Chicago area and Philadelphia. This is his first solo exhibition in New York. Exhibition Checklist 1. Sweat Lodge, 1999 scratched plastic 12 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches DCp 01 2. Hoopla Luminosa, 1996-97 scratched plastic, mixed media 22 1/4 x 26 1/4 inches DCp 03 3. Fuel, 2002 laminated plexiglass 9 1/2 x 12 1/8 inches DCp 6 4. Blue Moan, 1998 scratched plastic, mixed media 18 x 24 1/2 inches DCp 02 5. Carnival Boracho, 1996 scratched plastic 21 1/2 x 25 1/4 inches DCp 04 6. Glazed Eyes, 2002 pen and ink on paper 11 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches DCd 02 7. The Chef's Fistic Example, 2002 hand-colored intaglio print edition of 10 15 x 18 inches DCr 02 8. Exhibition Announcement Drawing, 2002 pen and ink on paper 13 1/4 x 19 inches DCd 1 9. Untitled, 2001 glazed porcelain tile 6 x 6 inches DCt 07 10. Untitled, 2000 glazed porcelain tile 6 x 6 inches DCt 06 11. Eclipse, 2001 glazed porcelain tile 6 x 6 inches DCt 04 12. Untitled, 2001 glazed porcelain tile 6 x 6 inches DCt 05 13. Untitled, 2002 glazed porcelain tiles 12 3/8 x 24 1/4 inches (triptych) DCt 19 14. Big Ass Polka Dots, 2002 glazed porcelain tile 6 x 6 inches DCt 02 15. Untitled, 2002 glazed porcelain tile 6 x 6 inches DCt 11 16. Gemelos, 2002 glazed porcelain tile 6 x 12 inches (diptych) DCt 17 17. The Persuasive Argument, 2001 glazed porcelain tile 6 x 6 inches DCt 01 18. Untitled, 2001 glazed porcelain tile 6 x 6 inches DCt 03 19. The Turkish Knot - Lens 1, 2002 glazed porcelain tile 6 x 6 inches DCt 12 20. The Turkish Knot - Lens 2, 2002 glazed porcelain tile 6 x 6 inches DCt 13 21. The Turkish Knot - Lens 3, 2002 glazed porcelain tile 6 x 6 inches DCt 14 22. Dirty Snow, 1993 plastic scratchboard, wood frame 12 1/4 x 14 3/4 inches DCp 05 |
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