Douglas Degges

SEPTEMBER 1 – OCTOBER 30, 2021
At a time when we have immediate access to anything, from sourcing information on the internet to our ability to capture and store images at a moment’s notice, analogue processes seem well poised for critically engaging newer forms of visual expression. In my own studio practice, I find painting and drawing to be great vehicles for slowing down and reflecting on the speed at which images are produced and consumed. Many of my paintings begin as small works on paper, the majority of which are made by sifting through piles of drawings, painted paper, and found printed material. The pieces come together through a cut and paste collage process, and many are later translated onto a painting surface through projection or some other transfer process. 

The works included in this exhibition are a part of a recent and ongoing project: a squirrel from memory. The smaller works on paper are more literal and time-intensive translations of printed photographic images, mostly of the northern Louisiana landscape, fish, small game, rodents, and pests. These photographic images are digitally prepared, occasionally collaged, and present a far more articulated visual language than the paintings. The drawings are my way of studying an image and internalizing form. The paintings are either crafted from memory with whatever is held onto from the drawing process or approached in a fast paced and painterly way, much like a study. I'm particularly interested in how the paintings undo the drawings and am thinking about how these disparate modes of inquiry might posit "the work" somewhere in between the paintings and the drawings. This requires some averaging or leveling across the visually and materially divergent objects that comprise a squirrel from memory. 

• PRESS RELEASE