Contemporary Art exhibition > Dana Hargrove
Contemporary Art exhibition > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia > Bridgette Mayer Gallery
Dana Hargrove, Divide and Consider
Bridgette Mayer Gallery, Philadelphia
November 4 - 29, 2008
Dana Hargrove, Terminal Installation, 2008, Acrylic on Panel, each panel 21″ diameter. © Dana Hargrove – Courtesy Dana Hargrove / Bridgette Mayer Gallery
Dana Hargrove's recent work from a summer residency in South Africa are on view in a solo exhibition at Bridgette Mayer Gallery in Philadelphia.
During her time in South Africa, the artist discovered the still present consequences of colonization, imperialism, and segregation. In her installations one can recognize the use of European and African motifs to address the idea of globalization through both popular culture and militaristic means. Ever present in Hargrove’s work, is her investigation between culture and nature, in Divide and Consider, she calls on the viewer to look into the two with her through various types of imagery.
Aside from her residencies and travels, Dana Hargrove is an Assistant Professor of Studio Art at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL, and has various site specific installations in the United States and abroad.
“Many of the works in this exhibition reference African/European motifs and strike a personal resonance for me. By isolating visual cues from within my experienced landscapes, such as local security fences and gates throughout Cape Town, I am able to signify the emotional and intellectual barriers or walls that are often consciously or subconsciously enhanced by our physical surroundings.” - Dana Hargrove.
Anna Brzyski, professor from the University of Kentucky writes, “Dana Hargrove’s works fit comfortably within this broadly international tendency, though her intelligent use of richly decorative forms does not stem from an impulse to follow the prevalent fashion. She does not use ornament for ornament’s sake. The evocative sensuality of color, details, and patterns that appear in the pieces such as “The Empire’s New Clothes,” “Broekie,” or “Spikes” is deceptive. The visual playfulness of these works has a definite edge. It evokes the specter of the colonial and apartheid past that haunts South Africa’s present.”
Bridgette Mayer Gallery
709 Walnut St., 1st Floor
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106
www.bridgettemayergallery.com
