exhibitions - conceal project
Dawn Black: Conceal Project
February 21 - March 21, 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 21th
6 - 8 pm
Curator's Office is pleased to introduce the work of emerging artist, Dawn Black. Mysterious and exquisitely painted in watercolor, ink, and gouache, the works on paper present portraits of individuals altered by masks, uniforms, couture fashion, prison garb, ethnic attire, and other random eccentric forms of concealment. The artist was referred to the gallery by Curator's Office artist Jiha Moon. Black's work was extremely well received by curators, collectors and museum directors at this past December's Scope Miami Art Fair and nearly sold out.
Conceal Project examines the practice of masquerade, especially its role in relation to identity. The artworks not only explore the artist's own mania regarding disguised and surrogate identity, but of society's at large by depicting scenes of carefully selected concealed figures drawn in gouache and ink on paper. These figures are all "real" people (none being from imagination) who have been culled from the Internet and various periodicals. Of particular interest to the artist is a disguise's ability to make the wearer powerful through clandestine anonymity and, paradoxically its ability to allow the concealed person to be his or her authentic self. Oscar Wilde once remarked, "Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."
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The artist states, "Conceal Project is a collection of ... disguised persons, each being drawn separately on a piece of 7½" x 5½" paper and then arranged in a grid. Currently the project comprises 75 figures, and I am continuing to add more. Often I use the Conceal Project as a character bank, as these collected characters find their way into the narratives of my larger drawings. Each of these larger drawings tells a story by depicting numerous disguised figures whose mysterious and ambiguous relationships become intertwined with the viewer's beliefs regarding the authentic and the covert, the formidable and the meek, the false witness and the sincere, and are intended to invoke the aura of a forgotten myth or a foreboding parable."
Dawn Black has had solo exhibitions at the Kunstoffice, Berlin, Germany; City Arts Gallery, City College of San Francisco, CA; Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, LA; Oculus Gallery, Baton Rouge, LA; Eve Drewlowe Gallery, Iowa City, IA; Bryon Burford Gallery, Iowa City, IA. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at Morehead State University, Morehead, KY; Los Medanos College, Pittsburgh, PA; Florida State University Museum of Art, Tallahassee, FL; Irving Arts Center, Irving, TX; Reynolds Gallery, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA; Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA; Novato Art Center, Novato, CA; Upstate Artists Guild, Albany, NY; Shaw Center for the Arts, Baton Rouge, LA; Louisiana State University Art Gallery, Baton Rouge, LA; Gallery 119, Chicago, IL; University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA among others. She earned her MFA in Painting and Sculpture from the University of Iowa School of Art and Art History, Iowa City, IA and her BFA from Louisiana State University School of Art, Baton Rouge, LA.
Dawn Black CV
Dawn Black Artist Statement
image above: Dawn Black, Conceal Project 013, watercolor, ink, and gouache on paper, 7.5" x 5.5", 2008