Opening Tonight! Rory Donaldson's "Shared Roadway Ahead" @ Winkleman Gallery, 6-8 PM

Each piece in the RDX series begins as a digital photograph of a landscape, cityscape, or other urban motif. Through an emotive selection of process, Donaldson then erases, moves, expands or reduces elements of the photograph. In his earliest works of this series, Donaldson began by technically removing graffiti off a surface, updating the erased graffiti works made in the 1990’s. He later expanded this “cleansing process” to take on board the entire image.
Altering the position, dimension and scale of elements of his photograph has been part of Donaldson’s process for many years; however, the process for the RDX series is a reversal of where he had ventured before. What remains takes on a look of paint, both oil and acrylic painted on board and canvas (which is not surprising, given Donaldson formally trained as a painter in these mediums). A work may begin as a photograph of parking lot, for example, yet end up looking like a painting of an iceberg at sea by stripping out the dark and the dull and re-organizing what remains. Other works end with less literal outcomes and their final form is more abstract, holding a different narrative, based not on re-representation but on reconstruction and the structures held within.
As Donaldson builds each work, the original representational photographic elements gradually recede leaving in their wake distorted renderings that evoke different types of paint that looks as if it has been dragged and dripped, poured on and wiped off. While the illusion of paint is present, there are always digital reminders left in the process to confirm that these began from a photographic base and have grown into their new forms from this point of construction. The outcome of Donaldson's current investigation has resulted in a marriage that has long been in the courting stage. The works in the RDX series lie in a new realm between painting and photography, created by blending processes traditionally used in both, that he has been considering and mastering for years, and it is this path that he views as the shared roadway ahead.
Rory Donaldson is a Scottish-born artist living and working in New York; he was educated at the Grays school of art in Aberdeen Scotland from 1982-86 where he received a BA with honors. From 1986-87 he studied at the University of Ulster in Belfast where he received his MA, and from 1997-1998 at the Whitney Museum of Independent Study Program in New York. Recent exhibitions include "Industrial Aesthetics: Environmental Influences on Recent Art from Scotland" at the Hunter College Time Square Gallery in New York and "Chinese Take Out" at Art in General, New York. In 2008, Donald received the 2008 Morton Award (given for innovative work in the discipline of photography) by the Royal Scottish Academy.
For more information, contact Edward Winkleman at 212.643.3152 or info@winkleman.com.
Image above: Rory Donaldson, "Shine Against : Willingly Mine," 2011, digital photography, 14" x 11", edition of 1, plus 1 AP.Winkleman Gallery
621 West 27th Street
New York, NY 10001
Labels: gallery artist exhibition
2 Comments:
These are SO BEAUTIFUL! Congratulations. What an amazing evolution from Donaldson's last show - which was also lovely.
I'm curious about the choice to "edition" each as 1, plus an AP? Does this have to do with the relation between painting and photo the artist is interested in? Were there any other factors involved in the decision? And, sorry for the ongoing questions, what kind of paper (or canvas) are they printed on? - your site seems to just say "digital photograph," unless I am missing something.
Nice to see Joy and her work here in Milwaukee last week, too :)
I like these Edward, Best Regards to Rory. Shine Against : Willingly Mine. Reminds of the top of the Grand Canyon .The Colors work with just the right amount of Chaos.
Everyone should hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon before they die.
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