Posted on
2014-06-16
Dorion’s process begins by photographing a myriad of exterior and interior architectural elements that fascinate him. He then selects photos to translate into paintings, and through the use of light and the elimination of detail, creates highly minimal, and frequently monochromatic compositions. In a 2013 Artdaily.org interview, Dorion explains his recent work as follows: “In the last few years, I’ve worked extensively from photographs that I’ve taken in galleries or museums on various trips and that consequently include certain works or fragments of works. My preference is for formally spare, very minimalist works, in which the boundaries between architecture and the artwork fade away in the painting.” Dorion’s paintings are imbued with an uncanny emptiness that distills fragments of reality, drawing influences from the history of the medium to engage in a conversation on Minimalism and abstraction.
Dorion’s exploration of Minimalism in this exhibition of new paintings is twofold as he both depicts works by well-known Minimalist artists and renders architectural spaces using the Minimalist tropes of non-expressivity, expansive color fields and gradients, and stark geometry. His smaller works depict installations of purely Minimalist work. Untitled (FS), 2014, shows an exhibition space with works by Fred Sandback. More than a mere illustration these paintings blend the architectural minimalism of the exhibition spaces with the Minimalist artworks on display. This creates a composition in which figure-ground distinctions are flattened resulting in a melancholic mysteriousness. By breaking down the boundaries between art and architecture and quoting Minimalist tropes, Dorion’s paintings create a tension between what is apparent at first sight and what is obscured, and between the surface and depth of the work itself.
Exhibition runs through to July 25th, 2014
Jack Shainman Gallery
524 W 24th St
Chelsea
New York
10011
jackshainman.com
