Alex Dodge Exhibition

Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery

poster for Alex Dodge Exhibition

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Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery opens its fall 2020 season with a show of Alex Dodge’s newest paintings. Drawn using animation and design programs and executed in paint with Dodge’s advanced stenciling techniques, these works are largely figurative, though not necessarily human. Some of his subjects resemble cats, puppets, topiary, or uncanny approximations of recognizable animals. Dodge thinks of the figures as representing two realms, “The Synthetic” and “The Mystical”. Those that are Synthetic – closer to “real” – are more reflective of human behavior and emotion, while those that are Mystical allude to characters who employ magic, or have the power to use mysterious tools. These characters speak to our time, where humanity now looks to technology to solve problems, build personal relationships, or transfer information, while many people still experience a yearning for something authentic or meaningful.

In addition to what has become Dodge’s signature application of oil paint through stencils, each of these new paintings has a dark blue-to-white gradient ground. This fade is inspired by a Japanese technique called “Bokashi”, which Dodge learned from traditional Ukiyo-e masters at the Adachi Hanga workshop while living in Japan. Historically in woodblock prints, this fade allowed for a deliberate depth to permeate the image, yet the darkness is ambiguous enough to offer the figures a presence, as though spotlit on stage. Dodge aims to integrate a balance between the tactility of the stencil-painted surface and the open-ended experience of a shared world with these figures.


The artist dedicates this exhibition in the memory of Takuya Matsuda (1978-2020) beloved friend and elegant dirtbag.


Alex Dodge lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He holds degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design (BFA) and the New York University Interactive Telecommunication Program (MPS). His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. He is the recipient of the 2016 Japan U.S. Friendship Commission Creative Artist Exchange Fellowship. Dodge’s work has recently been shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, The Columbus Museum of Art, and Maki Fine Art in Tokyo. This is his sixth solo exhibition at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, and follows a presentation of his paintings at the Independent New York in March of 2020.

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Schedule

from September 10, 2020 to October 17, 2020

Artist(s)

Alex Dodge

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