For Independent Brussels 2017 Dürst Britt & Mayhew is proud to present a solo exhibition with new works by American artist Joseph Montgomery.
The mainstay of Montgomery’s oeuvre consists of two different types of work. There are the minimalist, monochromatic shims on the one hand and the collages on the other. Both kind of works have the structure and syntax of sculpture, but they simultaneously have all the trappings of painting. This blurring and confounding of classification lends them a strange sense of hybridity.
For his collages Montgomery is basically attracted to the classical portrait format with which he creates layered abstract images, which are reminiscent of faces or muzzles. Since last year they mostly begin as self-portrait pencil sketches on paper, emphasizing a large nose and long hair and perhaps a gender fluidity. These are vectorized and assigned colours in the computer. Then they are printed on plastic with an emulsion that interacts with alcohol in order to be transferred onto canvas. Subsequently Montgomery chooses either to keep this ‘pigment transfer’ as is or add various other layers of paint, pastel or found materials.
Montgomery’s shim works are composed of a generative, readymade material, the 16 inches long, tapered wedges you can find in the lumber section of any DIY store. Rearranging them, assembling them, is another way of representing painting. Recently he started adding vegetation that the finds in the vicinity of his studio. The wedges also pop up in other series and media in the form of life-size sculptures and video-animations, hence becoming a returning motif.
Joseph Montgomery (1979, Northampton, MA, US) lives and works in New York. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Rules for Coyote’ at Dürst Britt & Mayhew, ‘DOLLS’ (with Sherrie Levine) at Paula Cooper Gallery, ‘Heads, Calves’ at Laurel Gitlen, ‘Doll Index’ at Peter Blum Gallery and ‘Five Sets Five Reps’ at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA). His work was also shown in the seminal group exhibition ‘Painter Painter’ at The Walker Art Centre in Minneapolis. Work by Montgomery is held in private and public collections, including the Centraal Museum Utrecht, Netherlands.
