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Spine, Crack, Transfigure – Daniel Luedtke and Ben Seamons

Spine, Crack, Transfigure – Daniel Luedtke and Ben Seamons

In new works by Daniel Luedtke, negative shapes, cracks and edges demarcating walls, windows and bodies are remade and rearranged using painted and resin-treated surfaces resembling ceramic or metal. Figurative and abstract paintings, drawings and sculptures trace, index and exchange the dynamics of formal and narrative exclusion in order to recombine them within different hierarchies. Negative become positive and new negatives emerge. These formal mediations on the identity and character of difference generates space for unseen figures to appear.

Ben Seamons’ recent paintings depict human figures that arise out of a painting process that sets the subject matter and the paint on a collision course. The use of gestural abstraction in relationship to the figure conjures unanticipated moments where figures are caught in metaphysical experiences. The paint is the medium that transmits a kind of psychic reality and elicits themes of boundary dissolution: between material and spirit, the body and space; between the violent and the ecstatic, the concentrated and the diluted.

 

Install view
Install view
"Tracing Thumbnails" - Oil Paint, Paper, Pencil, Toner, Resin on Canvas - 10'' X 14''
“Tracing Thumbnails” – Oil Paint, Paper, Pencil, Toner, Resin on Canvas – 10” X 14”

tracing_thumbnails_side_view_2000

 

"Rose Rub" - Oil, Acrylic, Watercolor, Resin, Ink, Paper on Canvas - 16'' X 22''
“Rose Rub” – Oil, Acrylic, Watercolor, Resin, Ink, Paper on Canvas – 16” X 22”
"Sitting Beside An Unopened Book" - Paper, Watercolor, Gouache, Resin, Ink on Canvas - 32'' X 40''
“Sitting Beside An Unopened Book” – Paper, Watercolor, Gouache, Resin, Ink on Canvas – 32” X 40”

 

"Remake the Braid to Trace the Picture" - (Part 1) Framed Collage with Foam Board, Resin, Ink and Animation Clay - (2nd Part) Foam Board, Resin, Ink, Animation Clay and Glazed Ceramic attached directly to gallery wall - 41'' X 13''
“Remake the Braid to Trace the Picture” – (Part 1) Framed Collage with Foam Board, Resin, Ink and Animation Clay – (2nd Part) Foam Board, Resin, Ink, Animation Clay and Glazed Ceramic attached directly to gallery wall – 41” X 13”
"Automatic Thoughts" - Foam Board, Wood, Oil, Gouache, Pencil, Resin, Ink, Dead Vibrating Bullets Extinguished by Ana-Raba, Liz Rosenfeld and Joel Parsons - 57'' X 47''
“Automatic Thoughts” – Foam Board, Wood, Oil, Gouache, Pencil, Resin, Ink, Dead Vibrating Bullets Extinguished by Ana-Raba, Liz Rosenfeld and Joel Parsons – 57” X 47”

automatic_thoughts_detail_2000

“Cracks and Seams on Blackened Windows Brought To Your Feet Eclipsing Sky Blue” – Wood, Fabric, Blue Towels, Foam Board, Resin, Ink – 6 Panels Mirroring the size of the Exhibition Space Entryway Windows – Dimensions Variable

"Cracks and Seams on Blackened Windows Brought To Your Feet Eclipsing Sky Blue" - Wood, Fabric, Blue Towels, Foam Board, Resin, Ink - 6 Panels Mirroring the size of the Exhibition Space Entryway Windows - Dimensions Variable

(detail)
(detail)

Panel 2

Panel 3

Panel 4

Panel 5

Panel 6

danimal

Daniel Luedtke is a self-taught printmaker / artist / musician from Minneapolis MN. His brightly colored, graphicly bold prints utelize geometric abstraction paired with ubsurdist figurative elements that are often inspired by feminist politics, folk art, and kitsch. He got his start printing posters for his band Gay Beast back in 2006 and has since gotten many poster, packaging, and merchandise commissions. After completing a few printmaking residencies in 2008 and 2009 his focus has tended more toward fine-art printmaking, creating larger prints and installations for shows both in the u.s. and abroad.