Dennis Lee Mitchell, Alexey Titarenko, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore MD

Dennis Lee Mitchell: Smoke Drawings + Alexey Titarenko: Venice
C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD
Through July 6, 2013

On view at C. Grimaldis Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland, USA,  two concurrent solo exhibitions: ALEXEY TITARENKO: Venice, and DENNIS LEE MITCHELL: Smoke Drawings. 

DENNIS LEE MITCHELL

Untitled, 2010 

Smoke on paper, 30 x 30 in.

Image courtesy C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore

Smoke Drawings is DENNIS LEE MITCHELL’s first solo exhibition at C. Grimaldis Gallery. In his current body of work, Mitchell uses smoke as a drawing tool, delicately applying carbon from a lit torch, depositing the soot from the smoke onto paper. While the resulting images evoke human forms or body parts, his imagery remains abstract, striking a balance between the representational and the ephemeral. For the artist, “carbon is both essential for life and the essence of the ephemeral. In my work, it is the result of heat transforming materials. The smoke becomes a vehicle to capture the elusive moment where chance and idea meet…. The images become metaphor for the human condition.” (Cassidy, Victor M., Dennis Lee Mitchell, Olivia Petrides and Lisa Sambor. Dennis Lee Mitchell, Olivia Petrides, Lisa Sambor. Ukranian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago, 2012)

DENNIS LEE MITCHELL earned his MFA in Ceramics from Arizona State University at Tempe in 1971, and his MA and BA from Fort Hays Kansas State University in 1969 and 1968, respectively. He has exhibited internationally in museums and galleries including the Meijer Sculpture Garden in Michigan, the Dubuque Museum in Iowa, the 5th World Contemporary Ceramic Biennale in Seoul, South Korea, and recently at the Ukrainian Institute for Modern Art in Chicago. His artwork resides in many public collections including the Illinois State Art Museum in Chicago, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, the Daum Museum of Fine Arts in Missouri, and the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. 

ALEXEY TITARENKO

Gondolas, 2001 

Edition 2/10, silver gelatin print, 16 x 16 in.

Image courtesy C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore

Venice brings ALEXEY TITARENKO's recent photographic achievements of one of Europe’s most iconic settings to Baltimore at C. Grimaldis Gallery. Alexey Titarenko’s photographs of Venice were created from 2001-2008 and employ the unique stylistic approach found in his iconic work of St. Petersburg, Russia and Havana, Cuba. Evocative of ghosts in the landscape, blurs of tourists and the diminishing residential community heavily populate instantly recognizable shots of Plaza San Marco, the Rialto Bridge, and the ubiquitous Venetian canals. The resulting effect is a feeling of timelessness and familiarity, enhanced by the use of photographic film shot through a medium-format Hasselbad camera and traditionally printed as silver gelatin prints. 

ALEXEY TITARENKO has received numerous awards from institutions such as the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland, Soros Center for Contemporary Art in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the National Audiovisual Centre in Dudelange, Luxembourg. He has participated in many international festivals, biennales, and projects and has exhibited extensively in Europe and the United States. His works are in the collections of major international museums including the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the George Eastman house in Rochester, New York, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts

C. GRIMALDIS GALLERY
523 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21201, USA
www.cgrimaldisgallery.com