MINUS SPACE is pleased to announce the exhibition Mark Dagley: Structural Solutions, the artist’s first solo exhibition of new paintings in New York City in 15 years.  The exhibition will feature three oversized paintings – the artist’s largest works created to-date – which will be exhibited on flat aluminum blocks on the floor and leaned against the gallery walls.  The three paintings include one matte red and black scalene triangle, one prismatic stained grid, and one pale yellow and blue striped rectangle with notched L-shaped holes.

Over the past three decades, Mark Dagley has developed a diverse and probing painting practice dictated by sequences and systems.  Foregrounding structural investigation over optical effects, he states, “As far as my work is concerned, I prefer the term systematic painting. The opticality is just the sexy part, the by-product of the real issue at hand, which is structure.”

Eschewing the constraints of a signature personal style, Dagley’s interest lies rather in the exploration of abstraction’s myriad options.  This has led to the development of divergent bodies of work, including monochromes, grids, checkers, dots, orbs, stripes, tapered lines, and wave forms, which are put to use both individually and in various combinations.  Dagley also varies the surfaces in his paintings, which includes raw canvas, stains, pours, impastoed areas, hard edges, and gestural brushmarks.  Regarding his practice he continues, “The material qualities of paint and its application are perfunctory for me. I really want an impersonal look, but paradoxically, I want to achieve it painting by hand.”

Mark Dagley (b. 1957, Washington, DC) has exhibited his work internationally for the past three decades, including in North America, Europe, and Australasia.  During the 1980s, he was active in the East Village abstract painting scene and showed alongside other pioneering abstract painters, including Barry X Ball, Max Gimblett, Olivier Mosset, James Nares, Stephen Parrino, Li Trincere, and Alan Uglow, among many others.  Dagley’s work was included in the groundbreaking group exhibition Post-Hypnotic, which traveled throughout the United States from 1999-2001.  His work Concentric Sequence (1996) was featured on the cover of the exhibition catalog.

During his career, Dagley has worked with a number of influential galleries worldwide, including Tony Shafrazi Gallery (NYC), Galerie Hans Strelow (Dusseldorf, Germany), Galeria Mar Estrada (Madrid, Spain), and Galerie Swart (Amsterdam, The Netherlands).  More recently he has exhibited his work at Anna Kustera Gallery (NYC), Panepinto Galleries (Jersey City, NJ), The Shore Institute of the Contemporary Arts (Long Branch, NJ), Jersey City Museum (Jersey City, NJ), The Suburban (Chicago, IL), Daniel Weinberg Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), Instituto de Artes Graficas (Oaxaca, Mexico), ParisCONCRET (Paris, France), Galeria Leyendecker (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain), and Musee des beaux-arts de La Chaux-de-Fonds (La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland).

Dagley is a member of American Abstract Artists and his work has been reviewed in publications, such as Artforum, Art in America, Flash Art International, The Brooklyn Rail, Artnet Magazine, and Time Out New York. His work is included in the collections of The Broad Art Foundation, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Musee des beaux-arts de La Chaux-de-Fonds, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Swiss Credit Union, Foundation Prini, Hoffman/LaRoche, Henkel GmbH, EMI Madrid, Bloomingdale’s Corporation, and the University of Michigan Museums of Art.

Concurrent with his exhibition at MINUS SPACE, Mark Dagley is also the subject of a comprehensive survey exhibition Mark Dagley: 35 Years, 1976-2011 at Kent Place Gallery located at 42 Norwood Avenue in Summit, New Jersey (September 10 – October 5, 2012; Opening Friday, September 28, 6-8pm).

In March 2013, Mark Dagley will organize the group exhibition Banned in DC at Ventana244 Art Space in Brooklyn, NY, surveying the contemporary art scene originating from the greater Washington, DC and Baltimore, Maryland region.  The exhibition will include historical documentation, as well as works by artists, such as Henry Brown, Gene Davis, Colin Greenly, Chris Martin, Paul Reed, Roy Slade, Melissa Staiger, and Joan Waltemath, among others.

SUPPORT

MINUS SPACE’s programming is made possible by the generous support of The Golden Rule Foundation, as well as individuals.  We thank you!

ABOUT MINUS SPACE

MINUS SPACE specializes in reductive abstract art on the international level.  The gallery presents museum-quality solo and group exhibitions by pioneering emerging and established artists at its Brooklyn gallery, as well as at other collaborating venues on the national and international levels.

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