How to Operate in a Dark Room

1/9unosunove presents "How to Operate in a Dark Room," a major series of new works by New York-based artist Jonathan VanDyke. The six paintings in the exhibition represent a level of mastery in the artist’s sewn paintings. Hundreds of pieces of canvas and textiles, including denim and t-shirt fabric, are stained and painted through elaborate studio processes that unfold over many months, and then cut and sewn together in complex patterns. Many of the works are backed with brightly-colored, dyed linen, and with photos taken from the artist’s archive of photographs. These paintings are complimented by a series of black and white, silver gelatin prints inspired by a scene in Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1962 film L’eclisse, in which a man who has just lost everything draws a picture of flowers. The works are installed upon construction scaffolding that the artist has arranged in the gallery. In contrast to the delicacy of the paintings, the worn metal surfaces and industrial equipment quote from Arte Povera and American minimalist sculpture. The works and installation come together as a meditation upon making art and finding creative possibility during dark and uncertain times.

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