McArthur Binion: DNA: Work And The Under. Conscious Drawings
Gray is pleased to present "DNA:Work and the Under:Conscious Drawings", the gallery鈥檚 first exhibition with McArthur Binion. Debuting eight paintings and seven drawings from the artist鈥檚 DNA:Work and Under:Conscious series, the exhibition opens with a public reception for the artist at Gray Warehouse in Chicago in September of 2020.
McArthur Binion鈥檚 "DNA:Work" paintings use geometry as an index of labor and time, repurposing the Minimalist grid as a vehicle for examining a deeply personal narrative. At a distance, the paintings present as vivid, geometric patterns demarcated by an oil-stick grid. Upon closer inspection, each composition reveals a substrate of tightly collaged images and reproductions of personal documents including pages from the artist鈥檚 phone book, his birth certificate and photographs of his childhood home in Macon, Mississippi. Binion refers to this layer of images as the 鈥渦nder-conscious: the character just under the surface, close to the skin.鈥� As art critic and poet John Yau describes, Binion鈥檚 DNA paintings are 鈥渄eeper than autobiography 鈥� [his] formal mastery, his ability to wring so many possibilities out of his direct and straightforward labor, permeates the works with layers of meaning, beginning with his challenge to the idea that art could be objective and pure, that it could exist in a separate aesthetic realm untainted by life.鈥�
In addition to the paintings in the DNA:Work series, the exhibition debuts a series of works on paper, titled the Under:Conscious Drawings. Binion began the series in 2014 as a means of accessing the roots of his practice. Using graphite, charcoal, colored pencil and pen, Binion鈥檚 drawings are composed of evenly-distributed marks applied simultaneously with both hands.
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Gray is pleased to present "DNA:Work and the Under:Conscious Drawings", the gallery鈥檚 first exhibition with McArthur Binion. Debuting eight paintings and seven drawings from the artist鈥檚 DNA:Work and Under:Conscious series, the exhibition opens with a public reception for the artist at Gray Warehouse in Chicago in September of 2020.
McArthur Binion鈥檚 "DNA:Work" paintings use geometry as an index of labor and time, repurposing the Minimalist grid as a vehicle for examining a deeply personal narrative. At a distance, the paintings present as vivid, geometric patterns demarcated by an oil-stick grid. Upon closer inspection, each composition reveals a substrate of tightly collaged images and reproductions of personal documents including pages from the artist鈥檚 phone book, his birth certificate and photographs of his childhood home in Macon, Mississippi. Binion refers to this layer of images as the 鈥渦nder-conscious: the character just under the surface, close to the skin.鈥� As art critic and poet John Yau describes, Binion鈥檚 DNA paintings are 鈥渄eeper than autobiography 鈥� [his] formal mastery, his ability to wring so many possibilities out of his direct and straightforward labor, permeates the works with layers of meaning, beginning with his challenge to the idea that art could be objective and pure, that it could exist in a separate aesthetic realm untainted by life.鈥�
In addition to the paintings in the DNA:Work series, the exhibition debuts a series of works on paper, titled the Under:Conscious Drawings. Binion began the series in 2014 as a means of accessing the roots of his practice. Using graphite, charcoal, colored pencil and pen, Binion鈥檚 drawings are composed of evenly-distributed marks applied simultaneously with both hands.
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鈥淚 don鈥檛 come from art history, and even though I鈥檓 involved in the mainstream art world, I didn鈥檛 come from this.鈥�
Chicago-based artist McArthur Binion鈥檚 exhibition at Gray Warehouse includes minimal abstract paintings and challenges how we see self-expression.
McArthur Binion 鈥淒NA:Work and the Under:Conscious Drawings鈥� (Gray Warehouse)
Fall is upon us! It's a welcome season to embrace new art and fresh exhibitions.
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