Painter, Chris Dorland's Show opens at Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago

Chris Dorland, Simulations, at Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago.

OK.. so apparently there is some great art happening west of the Hudson River as well!!

But you heard about this amazing painter here first...(Artist Interview Part I, and Part II)

Actually painter Chris Dorland, lives and works in Astoria.. so technically..the great art works get made in NYC..and just gets shipped west to Chicago!

So, MAO and his art posse got a lucky chance to preview the work before it go shipped west... a

nd we can honestly say..it's Mr. Dorland's best work to date. 

His new "Simulations" all look like photo collages that were created on photocopy and digital scanning machines.. but when you realize some of these are painstakingly hand painted canvases.. you start to understand the merits of these new works.

Here's part of the gallery press release...

Rhona Hoffman Gallery is pleased to present Simulations, an exhibition of new paintings and photo collages by New York-based artist Chris Dorland. This will be his first solo exhibition at the gallery.

Dorland’s work primarily references imagery from 1960’s and 1970’s architectural history books of stadiums, pavilions and other public buildings.  These grand scale utopian architectural projects, some of which never progressed beyond their planning stages, are hulking contradictions. Once futuristic and forward thinking, they often end up dilapidated and forgotten: wreckages of late Capitalism. Neither entirely realistic nor abstract, these works depict images which oscillate between the process of becoming and dissolving.

The distinct surface of Dorland’s work is created using a varied technique that involves scraping and rolling paint. Thus, his paintings simultaneously reveal and mask his process. The paintings in Simulations in particular reference the artist’s use of photocopied source material. Dorland has also willfully restrained his palette for this exhibition. Pairing violent and aggressive reds, greens and blues alongside deep inky blacks, Dorland’s paintings and collages call to mind Andy Warhol’s early silk-screens as well as the sparse digital glow found in many of Director Michael Mann’s neo-noir films. 

We can't wait to see what the show looks like in the gallery when we're at Art Chicago 2008 next week. (Photo, Chris Dorland, Untitled (Cathode 1), 2008, oil on linen,  32 x 48 inches)

OH..and FYI : In conjunction with the exhibition, Dorland has created a limited edition of hand silk-screened Xerox books, printed at Tiny Vices Books, which are available for sale at the gallery.

Congrats Chris! The show runs from April 18th to May 22nd.