Doug Young “General Dynamics”

The Lodge Gallery

[Image: Doug Young "Before (Chernobyl)" (2016) reverse painting on glass, 21 x 21 in.]

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The Lodge Gallery presents, General Dynamics, a solo exhibition of works by Doug Young. In his second solo exhibition with The Lodge Gallery, Young explores the ego of man and the arrogance of governmental power. This recent body of work investigates the radical politics of our age and the coinciding precarious state of our natural environment. Vacillating through time from the unpeopled war rooms of the Cold War and the Vietnam War to the Philae spacecraft narrowing in on an ancient rogue comet, we are guided though a deposition of perceived reality. There is a feeling of anxiety about the consequence of our human urge to dominate but also a youthful faith that all is not irrevocable as long as these moments of belief are not fleeting.

Doug Young’s use of hooked rugs, reverse painting on glass, and woodworking derive from American modes of creative labor and the popular cultural traditions of transient craftspeople. There is a balance of hard and soft at work that is expressed through the craft of these pieces and mirrored in the socio-political themes of the subject matter. The use of hooked rugs evokes a Yankee ingenuity that pairs well with a with the highly industrial automotive paint reverse rendered on glass. The hand-made graphite painted frames that adorn each piece reinforce the iconic images and infers a monolithic uniformity that underscores the weight of each topic.

Doug Young, has exhibited extensively throughout New York and Chicago. He holds a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from Pratt Institute. His sculptures, hooked rugs and reverse paintings on glass evoke time-honored traditions of folk arts and Americana. In 2001 Young was awarded by the Guinness Book World Records for the longest nonstop banjo performance in history. In conjunction with General Dynamics, Young’s carved pine sculpture, Chains, is currently on view at Van Doren Waxter Gallery, NYC through January 7, 2017.