Showing in September at Davidson Galleries
Contemporary Print & Drawing Center • 206 624.6700
September 5-27, 2008
Opening reception with the artists:
“First Thursday”, September 4, 6-8 P.M.
Sean Caulfield & Akiko Taniguchi
Return to the Surface
Caulfield Stream of Lethe, 2007
Taniguchi Cage 2, 2007
Sean Caulfield (b. 1967, Canadian) and Akiko Taniguchi (b. 1967, Japanese/Canadian) have each produced a body of related prints that look to classical mythology as motivation in order to explore themes of transformation, transience and regeneration. Investigating a common visual language the artists have developed compositions that utilize biomorphic and organic shapes that reference the natural world. Their images often move between abstraction and representation creating a shifting quality in which narratives and associations to the real world are implied, but are left in an open-ended and unresolved state.
Although Caulfield and Taniguchi have worked together closely, each artist has approached their work from a slightly different perspective. For example, Taniguchi’s work is more influenced by the natural world and her images, rendered in a bold, graphic language, have strong references to plants, and environmental phenomena such as wind, rain and water. In her most recent suite of prints she has utilized a cage form in order to explore humanities ongoing (and futile) effort to contain, control, and dominate the ever-changing forces of nature.
In contrast to this, Caulfield has developed a suite of prints that, in addition to classical mythology and literature, have drawn on the history of scientific and medical illustration for motivation. From this research Caulfield has created imagined landscapes populated by enigmatic objects that refer to both mechanistic and naturalistic forms in order to explore themes of mutation, metamorphosis and biology/technology dichotomies. Although the work looks to the past for inspiration, its merging of mechanistic and organic languages is intended to point viewers towards a contemporary context in which advancements in technology are rapidly changing our relationship to the natural world, biology, and our own bodies.
Despite subtle differences in approach and motivation, Caulfield and Taniguchi have created for their second exhibition at Davidson Galleries work that expresses their shared interest in exploring humanities changing relationship to the natural world. Through poetic visual expression they have attempted to create prints that enable viewers “to see that the world is not simply a source of raw materials for our projects”, and to appreciate ourselves as “part of a larger order that can make claims on us.” Charles Taylor, The Malaise of Modernity (Concord: House of Anansi Press Limited), 1991, 89.
Contact Cara at 206 624.1324 for more information.
Antique Print Department • 206 624.6700
Continuing through September 27, 2008
SMS: A Collection of Original Multiples
40th Anniversary Exhibition
SMS Portfolio #3, 1968
Released in 1968, the SMS portfolio represented a collaboration between some of the most important artists and composers of the 20th century. Centered around a loft on Manhattan’s Upper West Side rented and maintained by the American Surrealist William Copley, SMS (a coy abbreviation for “Shit Must Stop”) was an open-ended collective that epitomized the community ethos of the 1960s. Thoroughly utopian in intent, the six volumes of the SMS portfolio included meticulously editioned works by a roster of artists both world-famous and obscure, each of whom received $100 for their contribution regardless of reputation. Among the many artists represented are Marcel Duchamp, Roy Lichtenstein, Man Ray, Christo, John Cage, and Yoko Ono. Davidson Galleries is proud to celebrate the 40th anniversary of SMS by exhibiting a complete set of all six portfolios.
left: Meret Oppenheim The Mirror of Genoveva
right: John Cage Diary: How to Improve the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse) continued 1968
Contact Emily at 206 624.6700 for more information.