Dennis Scholl
The Melody Haunts My Reverie
Curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah
Piero Atchugarry Gallery, Miami
Through May 17, 2025
Untitled (Assassination), 2023
© Dennis Scholl, courtesy Piero Atchugarry Gallery
Untitled (Oh no,Roy!), 2024
© Dennis Scholl, courtesy Piero Atchugarry Gallery
Piero Atchugarry Gallery presents The Melody Haunts My Reverie, an inaugural solo exhibition by American artist, Dennis Scholl, who lives and works in Miami Beach, Florida. The solo exhibition takes its title from Hoagy Carmichael’s iconic 1927 composition Stardust, a melody that encapsulates the enduring power of memory and imagination. Similarly, Dennis Scholl’s artistic practice is deeply rooted in recollection, artifacts, and conceptual drawing. Through assemblages built from meticulously curated objects —ephemeral materials, archival fragments, and items of cultural significance— Dennis Scholl creates evocative compositions that merge personal experience with broader cultural histories.
Over the decades, Dennis Scholl has diligently built a collection of ephemera and memorabilia from various online auction sites. He reviews over 30,000 images each month, carefully selecting a few that he seeks to acquire and eventually transform into artworks. Once secured, these objects enter his archive, where they are reimagined into extraordinary pieces of art.Dennis Scholl describes his process as creating “gateways to lost moments,” turning everyday items layered with historical and emotional significance into portals for reflection and rediscovery.
As a filmmaker, Dennis Scholl brings a cinematic lens to his studio practice, emphasizing narrative structure and visual storytelling. His experience in filmmaking sharpens his ability to frame objects as protagonists within larger cultural narratives. This sensibility is evident in works like Untitled (Assassination) and Untitled (Mourning), where the selected artifacts function as personal mementos and cultural signifiers. The narrative approach allows Dennis Scholl to interrogate how historical events, such as President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, transcend singular moments to become enduring cultural myths.
The exhibition culminates in a meditation on the fluidity of memory. Just as Stardust has been endlessly reinterpreted, retaining its essence while adapting to new voices and contexts, Scholl’s works illustrate how cultural touchstones remain relevant through ongoing reexamination. His assemblages transform artifacts of the past into dynamic reflections on history, inviting viewers to reconsider their connections to the remnants of memory and reimagine how the past shapes the present. In this interplay of time and meaning, Dennis Scholl offers a poetic meditation on memory’s enduring power to reshape our understanding of objects, histories, and ourselves.
© Dennis Scholl, courtesy Piero Atchugarry Gallery
Dennis Scholl (b. 1955, USA) is an American artist who lives and works in Miami Beach, Florida. He is a visual artist and filmmaker whose practice interrogates the intersections of memory, history, and cultural iconography. His work navigates the space between conservation and transformation, questioning the limits of historical truth and personal recollection.
His films have been showcased at over 100 international film festivals, including Sundance, SXSW, and DOC NYC, earning numerous accolades, including 23 regional Emmys from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. His documentary The Last Resort was acquired by Netflix, and his latest film, Naked Ambition, examines the legacy of Miami’s legendary pinup photographer, Bunny Yeager. Scholl’s work – both visual and cinematic – questions how history is archived, remembered, and reframed, offering a conceptual dialogue between past and present.
PIERO ATCHUGARRY GALLERY, MIAMI
5520 NE 4th Avenue, Miami, FL 33137
Dennis Scholl: The Melody Haunts My Reverie, Curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah
Piero Atchugarry Gallery, Miami, March 15 - May 17, 2025
