Curtis Carman and John Hanning “Color Dot Connect”

Mixed Greens Gallery

poster for Curtis Carman and John Hanning “Color Dot Connect”

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Mixed Greens presents Color Dot Connect, an ambitious, site-specific window installation by John Hanning and Curtis Carman. The artists use popular, nostalgic, and often humorous imagery and materials (such as Pac-Man prints and feather boas) that draw from their personal experiences, showing the overlap and connectivity between their lives as well as their relationship to a broad, universal context.

John Hanning’s work has largely been informed by his experience of growing up queer in the conservative South as well as living with HIV. Mixed-media collages often combine his childhood portraits with iconography such as Rubix cubes and the Virgin Mary, personalizing the widely recognizable imagery while placing his stories into a broader narrative, shared by many. Similarly, Curtis Carman’s sculpture and performance work investigates constructed identities using a variety of recognizable materials and found objects, sprinkled with a spoonful of wit and frivolity. In addition to living with HIV, Carman’s drag persona plays a central role in his work. Recently, he began applying drag costume elements such as sequins, rhinestones, and feathers to readymade objects, creating an over-the-top aesthetic he equates with the exuberant joy of life.

In Color Dot Connect, Hanning and Carman join forces for the first time, using dots and circles to visually and thematically anchor their collaboration. From prints of clustered Pac-Men to sequin-adorned basketballs to a halo wrapped with feather boas, the mixed media installation incorporates round objects, materials, and images from previous explorations to signify universality, infinity, and common ground. The sense of humor imbued in the work emanates a positive outlook that the artists have developed through the years. The title, borrowing the proverbial “connect the dots,” refers to not only the similarity between the two artists experiences of living with HIV but also an attempt to share the joy of embracing life while having survived AIDS.

Media

Schedule

from September 11, 2014 to November 15, 2014

Opening Reception on 2014-09-11 from 18:00 to 20:00

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