GALLERY & PROJECTS
BLAKE DANIELS TALES OF HERE AND LATER 25.03.2017 – 22.04.2017
TALES OF HERE AND LATER 25.03.2017 – 22.04.2017 ABOUT THE EXHIBITION ROOM is pleased to announce a solo presentation of new and recent paintings as well as drawings by BLAKE DANIELS. In TALES OF HERE AND LATER the paintings presented occupy a visual vocabulary suspended between fact and fiction while playing with contested forms of desire. The artist seeks to question the modes and methods of how we visualise genealogies and experienced narratives. In several of the larger scaled oil works, bodies and spaces are at turn obscured, dislocated and fragmented within the painted surface; as a means of contending with the inherent hybridism that occurs between representation and abstraction as both a tool for formal and social critique. Daniels further states: ‘The central exploration of these tales [has to do with a] feeble calling of a queer way of seeing that indulges in denied pleasure and the erotic power of desire and loss. This is a desire that both dismembers figures, territories and time; in the same breathe as visualising them as new and whole, existing in new worlds remembered not in history but in the body’s desire itself.’ The artist’s inordinate use of colour further enhances this approach; employing a specific palette that summons an ‘unbound Queer Visuality.’
For more details please contact: Thato Mogotsi - thato@roomgallery.co.za / +27 (0) 79 543 1573 Maria Fidel Regueros - maria@roomgallery.co.za / +27 (0) 82 373 6127
BLAKE DANIELS // CATALOGUE
Bonfire, Boogie, Burn 2016 Oil on Canvas 163 x 198 cm
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The Three Sisters of the Palm Courts 2016 Oil on Canvas 142 x 117 cm
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Lovers Famine (I Only Dream of Summer) 2015 Oil on Canvas 142 x 165 cm
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South Coast (Sleepers) 2016 Oil on Canvas 117 x 142 cm
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The Indigo Prophecy 2016 Oil on Canvas 198 x 163 cm
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Bad Girl Baptism (She Set Fire to the New Great Hall) 2017 Charcoal on Paper 109 x 150 cm
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Garden Self Portrait I 2017 Acrylic, Pastel and Oil on Canvas 63 x 48 cm
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Bedroom Self Portrait I 2017 Acrylic, Pastel and Oil on Canvas 63 x 48 cm
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House Plant Self Portrait I 2017 Acrylic, Pastel and Oil on Canvas 63 x 48 cm
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High Noon at Zoo Lake 2016 Color Pencil and Graphite on Paper 30 x 41 cm
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The Second Inauguration of Buffalo Bill 2016 Oil on Canvas 99 x 74 cm
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Brother Lover 2016 Acrylic on Paper 43 x 36 cm
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Miss Ronna Rex of the Old Jozi City 2017 Acrylic, Conte and Charcoal on Paper 33 x 33 cm
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The First Sister 2017 Acrylic, Conte and Charcoal on Paper 43 x 38 cm
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The Second Sister 2017 Acrylic, Conte and Charcoal on Paper 43 x 38 cm
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The Third Sister 2017 Acrylic, Conte and Charcoal on Paper 43 x 38 cm
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Dance Sister, Dance 2017 Charcoal on Paper 41 x 25 cm
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The Sister Summoner of Klipriviersberg 2017 Graphite and Conte on Paper 40 x 48 cm
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ABOUT THE ARTIST
GALLERY & PROJECTS
BLAKE DANIELS (b. 1990 Cincinnati, USA) currently lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa where he is pursuing a Masters in Fine Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand. Daniels received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2013) where he was a recipient of the Edward L. Ryerson Fellowship for top emerging artists. Accolades include the Pollock Krasner Fellowship, Vermont, USA (2014), the Ox-Bow Fellowship Grant, Saugatuck, USA (2014) and his inclusion as the youngest artist in the publication and project 100 Painters of Tomorrow, London, UK (2014) curated by Kurt Beers. Daniels has previously exhibited his work throughout the United States, Jamaica, the United Kingdom and South Africa: South Florida Museum, Bradenton (2010); Sullivan Gallery, Chicago (2013); Carousel Projects, Chicago (2013 and 2012); Gutstein Gallery, Savannah (2013); Edna Manley College Gallery, Kingston (2014); Fresh Exhibitions, Savannah (2014); Beers London, London (2015, 2014 and 2013); The Bag Factory, Johannesburg (2016 and 2015) and Challery, Vienna (2017). TALES OF HERE AND LATER marks his first solo showcase in South Africa. ABOUT ROOM ROOM is an independent gallery and project-based space that offers monthly programming that presents the production of early career artists who work across disciplines. We are based in Johannesburg’s inner-city and in the last six years of our existence, we have developed a critical profile within the southern-African region, while maintaining an audience and network within and beyond our immediate locale. Please visit our website for more about us: www.roomgallery.co.za
For more details regarding the exhibition and artworks presented in this catalogue, please contact:
Thato Mogotsi - thato@roomgallery.co.za / +27 (0) 79 543 1573 Maria Fidel Regueros - maria@roomgallery.co.za / +27 (0) 82 373 6127 Jemma Dwyer - jemma@roomgallery.co.za / +27 (0) 11 0744944
BLAKE DANIELS // CATALOGUE