Mark Dagley working outside his studio, Jersey City, NJ
September 7 – October 27, 2012
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 contraints 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), Leyendecker Gallery (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.
PRESS
Art in New York: October 2012 Sample, by John Mendelsohn, dArt International, Fall 2013, p. 28-30
Happy Thanksgiving and Gratitude List of 12, by Sam Nigro, I Heart Uniqueness I Heart Infinity Blog, November 23, 2012
Mark Dagley: Structural Solutions at MINUS SPACE, by Matthew Hassell, NY Arts Magazine, November 2012
Mark Dagley at MINUS SPACE, Gorky’s Granddaughter, October 23, 2012
Structure and Space, by Joanne Mattera, Joanne Mattera Art Blog, October 4, 2012
Critics’ Picks: Mark Dagley at MINUS SPACE, by Sherman Sam, Artforum, October 1, 2012
Mark Dagley: Looking for a New Perspective, by Isabel del Rio, Yareah Magazine, September 29, 2012
Artwork Taken to New Level in Dumbo, by Lauren Glassberg, WABC-TV, New York, NY, September 27, 2012
Six Art Shows to See This Fall, by Tabitha Vidaurri, Brooklyn Exposed, September 27, 2012
Mark Dagley: One Man Punk Band, by Nick Stolle, Two Coats of Paint, September 24, 2012
Mark Dagley at Minus Space, NY Arts Magazine, September 19, 2012
Mark Dagley: Structural Solutions, Design Porteur, September 17, 2012
2012 Brooklyn Season Opener, James Kalm Rough Cuts, September 9, 2012
