Exhibits & Events

FROSCH&CO is pleased to present over, under, sideways, down, Dennis Dawson’s fifth solo show with the gallery, featuring a body of work shaped by an extended process of experimentation, accumulation, and revision.

“We dance round in a ring and suppose,

But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.”  
– Robert Frost

“Say it, no ideas but in things”        
– William Carlos Williams

For years, Dawson’s method of working has been, as he describes it, to “throw things at the wall to see what sticks,” a metaphor that, in practice, often becomes literal. Materials are moved and rearranged, placed over and under, stacked and tapped down. His surfaces are cut, pasted, layered and shifted again. At times, they are shaved, sanded, or cut apart entirely and reassembled into new configurations, leading to desirable results. This is exploratory surgery, or extreme collage. It is not unlike remodeling and demolition work.

Several pieces in this exhibition began fifteen to twenty years ago. These works  remained ever present in the studio as other series came and went. Initially considered failures, they were kept primarily as working surfaces to try out new techniques, clean brushes, or experiment with new formal approaches. Over the years, successive layers accumulated, each partially covering and transforming the previous one.

Gradually, these works developed a life and patina of their own, beginning to suggest new possibilities and demanding renewed attention. Through this prolonged period of making and remaking, the surfaces acquired a density and gravitas that could only emerge through years of attention and material accumulation.

The resulting works are conglomerates, collages pushed to their limits. In many ways, these pieces come closer to what Dennis Dawson has been chasing than much of his other work. Their surfaces reflect the passage of time and place. Each assemblage functions as a heuristic palimpsest, the making and unmaking ever present and visible.  

The exhibition also includes a more recent series of works installed in a grid. While they include similar elements to the larger accumulative paintings, the gesture here is pared down and given its own small (16 x 20 inches) space to breathe and exist more concisely–in the spirit of Williams’ “no ideas but in things”. Viewed individually, each panel remains intimate and singular. Seen within the large grid, the small works create an accumulative effect that echoes the layered complexity of the larger pieces in the exhibition, only arrived at through different means.

Dennis Dawson received his BFA in painting from Ohio University and his MFA from the University of Tennessee. The artist lives and works in the New York metro area.