AL’S OFFICE

DANA JONES

On view: September 9 - October 22, 2021

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"I’m exploring the gap between the manufactured perfection promised by modernism and the actual product that survives, dented and imperfect through use.  My work is drawn from the disposable architecture of the industrial park and strip mall: structures substantial enough to contain the activity within. And cheap enough to be scraped away when business moves on.

There is a link between these buildings and the goods they manufacture, package and sell. It’s in the intelligence brought to bear on the design and construction of both the 12-pack suitcase, just sturdy enough to get the beer home, and the strip mall gas station that sells the beer. It’s an intelligence incomplete. It does not consider the end state of the goods or the longevity of the building. For each, design is a kind of dead end. 

But, I don’t want to make too much of this. These are paintings on material that has otherwise outlived its single-usefulness.  And in truth, the result is more whimsical than it reads." Dana Jones