CHRIS KAHLER: Disequencing by Bruno David Gallery

CHRIS KAHLER DISEQUENCING

bruno david gallery

CHRIS KAHLER Disequencing

April 5 - May 4, 2013 Bruno David Gallery 3721 Washington Boulevard Saint Louis, 63108 Missouri, U.S.A. info@brunodavidgallery.com www.brunodavidgallery.com Director: Bruno L. David This catalogue was published in conjunction with the exhibition Chris Kahler: Disequencing Editor: Bruno L. David Catalogue Designer: Christy Kirk Designer Assistant: Claudia R. David Printed in USA All works courtesy of Bruno David Gallery and Chris Kahler Photographs by Bruno David Gallery Cover image:

Disequencing 3B (detail) 2013 Acrylic and ink on paper 18 x 24 inches 45.7 x 61 cm)

First Edition Copyright ÂŠ 2013 Bruno David Gallery, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of Bruno David Gallery, Inc.

CONTENTS

DISEQUENCING BY JAD SMITH Afterword BY BRUNO L. DAVID CHECKLIST AND IMAGES OF THE EXHIBITION BIOGRAPHY

DISEQUENCING: CHRIS KAHLER BY JAD SMITH

Chris Kahler’s ambitious new exhibition, “Disequencing,” lives up to its clever title. The paintings form a sequence of sorts but one that functions against linear or dialectical logic. Kahler replays certain compositional motifs, particularly of shape and line, with subtle variations that bring the seemingly static and geometrically-abstract negative space of his paintings alive with motion. This motion moves into and redefines the foreground of each of the paintings, altering its scale and range of possible allusions in a unique way. As a result, each composition becomes a parallel world that urges the viewer to reinhabit its kinetic, shifting pathways, to recreate it, and to distinguish it from other paintings in the exhibition. Kahler’s compositions draw attention to the artistic process but also recognize the viewer’s potential agency in the creation of meaning. From a distance, Kahler’s compositions roil with color that appears sometimes to spread outward from murky shadows into sulphurous clouds or drifts of effuse light, sometimes to disappear into coalescing darkness. These organic shapes form a stark contrast with the cold negative space around them, which is traced with faintly-visible lines suggestive of computerized contour maps or distorted Smith wavelength charts. In the foreground, bright color lines—some following smooth geodesic arcs, some straight trajectories—appear to fall inward into dark vanishing points much like light bent by an immense gravitational field or, conversely, to emerge from these same spaces and dart out of the visual frame. In addition to generating motion, these hard-edged zips variously rend, fracture, or even pin and dissect more biological shapes, defining each composition’s spatial depth and structure distinctively. Kahler courts ambiguity knowingly and with great success. The organic shapes could be nebulae giving birth to stars or black holes destroying them. Or they could be thermite reactions, supravital stains of cells, MRIs, or partly-processed telescopic images of supernova remnants and coronal mass ejections. The black and color lines could be dualistic particles crashing and careening through subatomic space, or digital maps of particle acceleration and degeneration. By way of such ambiguities, Kahler’s paintings blur the boundaries between physical and psychological time, between phenomena and the variable conceptual filters for understanding them.

Astronomers, physicists, welders, and cellular biologists might all bring different analogies to Kahler’s paintings—a possibility Kahler is certainly aware of—but such referentiality isn’t the point. Closer viewing of the paintings makes that perfectly clear. As one moves forward, unexpected details and movements complicate, sometimes even dislocate, dominant motifs. A red line appears not to fade away into darkness but to cast an eerie reflection upon the surface of a viscous, black pool. Sanded lines in the foreground and background are revealed to be ghostly or broken remnants of patterns the viewer’s mind has, from a distance, supplied. An apparently organic shape bears an unnaturally straight or angular edge, or extends into a dim remnant that becomes part of the negative space. Soft gaseous or liquid flows bubble into acidic froth. Faint lines jump and curve outward from negative space or form tails behind smaller organic shapes pushing inward, rescaling perspective and producing flits of intricate—and sometimes incompatible—motion. These layers and juxtapositions add an element of unpredictability to Kahler’s paintings, one that conveys an engaging sense of immediacy and inspired improvisation. The term “interzone” refers to an in-between space where distinct realities or categories of experience break down, bleed into one another, or merge and hybridize. Interzones exist just at the edge of human understanding, engendering an unsettling mixture of uncertainty and wonder. Where they are, the operations, limits, and incongruities of our conceptual filters are exposed or transformed. Kahler’s new work takes us there, somewhere beyond the organic and the synthetic, the phenomenal and the scientific, the empirical and the imaginative. These paintings call attention to the dreams that stuff is made of but, in the end, gesture toward the surprising and sometimes inexplicable intricacies of a noumenal world just beyond.

Jad Smith is Associate Professor of British Literature and Cultural Studies. His interests include eighteenth-century British literature and science fiction. He teaches graduate seminars titled Enlightenment Sexualities, Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Drama in Performance, and SF Avant-Gardes: New Wave and Cyberpunk, as well as a wide range of undergraduate courses. His recent book was just published: John Brunner, Modern Masters of Science Fiction Series (University of Illinois Press, January 2013)

AFTERWORD BY BRUNO L. DAVID 10

I am pleased to present a new exhibition titled “Disequencing” by Chris Kahler at the gallery. This new body of work utilizes a more intimate scale and simplicity that is in contrast to recent works. A duality exists in the work, playing back and forth with questions of depth and causality. David Pagel of the Los Angeles Times wrote of Kahler’s work: “a potent and corrosive beauty, a sublime combination of breakdown and growth, disintegration and accumulation, creation and destruction. Sometimes it seems as if he paints pictures of a world of effervescence, in which solid substances dissolve into roiling gases, steamy atmospheres, and gravity-defying liquid clouds. In his work, it is almost impossible to distinguish between the microscopic and the cosmic, and everything is richer for the confusion.” Chris Kahler is a Professor of Painting and Drawing at Eastern Illinois University. He received his B.F.A. at Ohio Wesleyan University and M.F.A. from Northwestern University. Support for the creation of significant new works of art has been the core to the mission and program of the Bruno David Gallery since its founding in 2005. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Jad Smith for his thoughtful essay. I am deeply grateful to Christy Kirk, who gave much time, talent, and expertise to the production of this catalogue. Invaluable gallery staff support for the exhibition was provided by Yoko Kiyoi, Martin Lang, Christy Kirk, Sophie Lipman, Ashley Milow, and Nicole Fry.

CHECKLIST & IMAGES OF THE EXHIBITION

Disequencing 7B, 2013 Acrylic and ink on panel 18 x 24 inches (45.7 x 61 cm)

Disequencing 1B, 2013 Acrylic and ink on panel 36 x 24 inches ( 91.4 x 61 cm)

Disequencing 2B, 2013 Acrylic and ink on panel 36 x 24 inches ( 91.4 x 61 cm)

Disequencing 9B, 2013 Acrylic and ink on panel 18 x 24 inches (45.7 x 61 cm)

Disequencing 5B, 2013 Acrylic and ink on panel 24 x 18 inches (61 x 45.7 cm)

22 20

21 23

Disequencing 6B, 2013 Acrylic and ink on panel 30 x 30 inches (76.2 x 76.2 cm)

Disequencing 16B, 2013 Acrylic and ink on panel 16 x 16 inches (40.6 x 40.6 cm)

Disequencing 8B, 2013 Acrylic and ink on panel 30 x 30 inches (76.2 x 76.2 cm)

Disequencing 3B, 2013 Acrylic and ink on panel 18 x 24 inches (45.7 x 61 cm)

Disequencing 12B, 2013 Acrylic and ink on panel 16 x 16 inches (40.6 x 40.6 cm)

Disequencing 11B, 2013 Acrylic and ink on panel 24 x 18 inches (61 x 45.7 cm)

Disequencing 13B, 2013 Acrylic and ink on panel 16 x 16 inches (40.6 x 40.6 cm)

Disequencing 14B, 2013 Acrylic and ink on panel 16 x 16 inches (40.6 x 40.6 cm)

Disequencing 10B, 2013 Acrylic and ink on panel 16 x 16 inches (40.6 x 40.6 cm)

Disequencing 17B, 2013 Acrylic and ink on panel 18 x 24 inches (45.7 x 61 cm)

Disequencing 18B, 2013 Acrylic and ink on panel 16 x 16 inches (40.6 x 40.6 cm)

Disequencing 4B, 2013 Acrylic and ink on panel 16 x 16 inches (40.6 x 40.6 cm)

Disequencing 15B, 2013 Acrylic and ink on panel 16 x 16 inches (40.6 x 40.6 cm)

CHRIS KAHLER: Disquencing, Bruno David Gallery, 2013 (Installation view)

CHRIS KAHLER EDUCATION M.F.A. 1995, Painting/Printmaking concentration, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois M.A. 1992, Painting/Drawing concentration, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois B.F.A. 1991, Painting concentration, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio 1990, Study Abroad, Parsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s School of Art and Design and The American University, Paris, France

SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2007 2006 2004 2002 1997

Bruno David Gallery, Chris Kahler: Disequencing, St. Louis, Missouri (catalogue) Bruno David Gallery, Chris Kahler: Recent Paintings, St. Louis, Missouri (catalogue) Anita S. Wooten Gallery, Chris Kahler: Duality, Valencia College, Orlando, FL David Richard Contemporary, Bio-Dynamic, Santa Fe, NM. (catalogue) Bruno David Gallery, Chris Kahler: Hybrid Dynamic, St. Louis, Missouri (November) (catalogue) The John P. Weatherhead Gallery, Chris Kahler: Interconnectivity, University of Saint Francis, Fort Wayne, Indiana Bruno David Gallery, Chris Kahler: VIRAL, St. Louis, Missouri. (catalogue) Bruno David Gallery, Impulsive Systems: The Works of Chris Kahler, Saint Louis, Missouri Elliot Smith Contemporary Art, Chris Kahler: Recent Works, Saint Louis, Missouri The International Museum of Surgical Science, Chris Kahler: ANATOMICA, Chicago, Illinois John Almquist Gallery, Dismantling Beauty: Christopher Kahler, Winnetka, Illinois

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2013 BLUE-WHITE-RED, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO 2012 W.O.P. I, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO 2011 OVERPAPER, with Carmon Colangelo, William Conger, Alex Couwenberg, Jill Downen, Yvette Drury Dubinsky, Beverly Fishman, Joan Hall, Ann Hamilton, Kelley Johnson, Chris Kahler, Matthew Penkala, Judy Pfaff, Paul Henry Ramirez, and Buzz Spector. Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO (catalogue) 2010 Gallery Artists, Bruno David Gallery (Project Room), St. Louis, MO 2009 NEXT, Art Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, (Bruno David Gallery) Overview_09, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri 2008 Synchronous Events, Works of Chris Kahler and Charles Schwall, Purdue University, Patti and Rusty Rueff Galleries, Lafayette, Indiana New Paintings, IL+MO, Edwardsville Arts Center, Curated by Daniel Raedeke, Edwardsville, Illinois Controlled Chaos, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri Overview_08, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri 2007 ArtsDesire, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri. Biennial 24, South Bend Museum of Art, Curated by Meg Sheehy and Myra Casis, South Bend, Indiania Paper Now, I Space, Chicago, Illinois Overview_07, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri 2006 Drawing & Watercolor, Tarble Arts Center, Charleston, Illinois Overview_06, Bruno David Gallery, Saint Louis, Missouri 2005 Inaugural Exhibition, Bruno David Gallery, Saint Louis, Missouri Le Papier, Gescheidle Gallery, Chicago, Illinois The (In)Visible Body. Curated by Heather Weber, NIU Gallery, Chicago, Illinois Noire, Curated by Bruno L. David, Elliot Smith Contemporary Art, Saint Louis, Missouri 2004 Abstract Painting: Six Points of View, Curated by Belinda Lee, RAC Gallery, Saint Louis, Missouri 1984-2004 Twentieth Anniversary Celebration, Curated by Bruno L. David, Elliot Smith Contemporary Art, Saint Louis, Missouri Art St. Louis XX, Curated by Chakaia Booker, Art St. Louis Gallery, Saint Louis, Missouri Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Art..., Elliot Smith Contemporary Art, Saint Louis, Missouri Size Matters, Curated by Bruno L. David, Elliot Smith Contemporary Art, Saint Louis, Missouri Midwestern Exhibition, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, Illinois

2004 Art St. Louis Selections, Schmidt Art Center, Belleville, Missouri 2004, Curated by Mel Watkin, Art St. Louis Gallery, Saint Louis, Missouri Greater Midwest, International Exhibition XIX, Art Center Gallery, Central Missouri State University, Warrensburg, Missouri Works on Paper, I-Space Gallery, Chicago, Illinois 2003 Systematic, Cade Center for the Fine Arts Gallery, Anne Arundel Community College, Arnold, Maryland Art St. Louis XIX, Art St. Louis Gallery, Saint Louis, Missouri Ready for War, University Galleries, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois Southern Illinois Artists Exhibition, Mitchell Museum, Mount Vernon, Illinois 2002 Polka-dots and Squiggly Things, Gescheidle Gallery, Chicago, Illinois Inspired in Illinois, Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences, Peoria, Illinois 2001 Artists-Alumni: Masters of Fine Arts from Northwesternâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Department of Art Theory and Practice, Block Museum, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois Nineteenth Biennial Southern Illinois Artists Exhibition, Mitchell Museum, Mount Vernon, Illinois The 13th Biennial Drawing/Watercolor: Illinois Exhibition, Tarble Art Museum, Charleston, Illinois 2000 The 2000 Rockford-Midwestern Exhibition, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, Illinois Americas 2000, Northwest Art Center, Minot State University, Minot, North Dakota Seventh Biennial Regional Arts Exhibition, University Museum, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois 1996 Gary Justis Appoints Three: Regina Allen, Chris Kahler, and Brian Schuetz, Lineage Gallery, Chicago, Illinois

GRANTS & AWARDS 2011 2010 2008 2007 2004 2003 1997 1995 1993 1993

Redden Grant, Eastern Illinois University Redden Grant, Eastern Illinois University Painting’s Edge Residency, Idyllwild, CA Painting’s Edge Residency, Idyllwild, CA Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont. Artist Grant Art St. Louis XIX, Art St. Louis Gallery, Saint Louis, Missouri, Award of Excellence Southern Illinois Artists Exhibition, Mitchell Museum, Mount Vernon, Illinois, Painting Honorarium Award Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont, Artist Grant Annual All-Illinois Graduate Art Exhibition, Jones Resident Prize Department of Art Theory and Practice, Northwestern University, TA Scholarship (2 years) 24th Bradley National print and Drawing Exhibition Award

OTHER 1999 - Present

Professor, Painting/Drawing, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois

BIBLIOGRAPHY Smith, Jad. “Chris Kahler”, Catalogue, Essay. Bruno David Gallery Publication, April 2013 Iannaccone, Carmine. “Picture Creation”, Catalogue, Essay. Bruno David Gallery Publication, March 2012 Gordon, Kara. “Kairos”, Catalogue, Essay. Bruno David Gallery Publication, March 2012 Abatemarco, Michael “Chris Kahler: Bio-Dynamic”, The Santa Fe New Mexican, September 2010 Singh, Abhilasha “Bio Dynamic”, ARTslant-Santa Fe, September 2010 Pagel, David “Forever Now”, Catalogue Essay: Bio-Dynamic, David Richard Contemporary Publication, October 2010 Cooper, Ivy “Chris Kahler: Bruno David”, Art in America, February 5, 2010 Baran, Jessica “Chris Kahler: Hybrid Dynamic”, Riverfront Times, November 25, 2009 Cooper, Ivy “Bright Spots”, St. Louis Beacon, November 23, 2009 Moynihan, Miriam “Chris Kahler Exhibit Shows Artist’s Study of Color”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 18, 2009 Yood, James. “Chris Kahler: Hybrid Dynamic”, Catalogue, Essay. Bruno David Gallery Publication, November 2009 Cooper, Ivy “Edwardsville Show Includes Some of the Area’s Best”, St. Louis Beacon, June 18, 2008 Beall, Dickson. “Live Virus”, West End Word, November 7, 2007 Artner, Alan. “Paper Now”, Chicago Tribune, September 21, 2007 Houston, Joe. “Chris Kahler: Viral”, Catalogue, Essay. Bruno David Gallery Publication, October 2007 Bonetti, David. “Biology in art”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, March 29, 2006 Downen, Jill “Chris Kahler: Impulsive Systems”, Catalogue, Essay. Bruno David Gallery Publication, March 2006 Bonetti, David. “Chris Kahler: Impulsive Systems”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, March 9, 2005 ___________ “Five Galleries Not to Miss.” Where Magazine, March 2006 Miller, Rob. “’Over hung’ show or ‘Hung over’ critic?” Saintlouisart, November 17, 2005. Cooper, Ivy. “Bruno David Gallery: Inaugural Exhibition”, Riverfront Times, November 9, 2005. Bonetti, David. “Bruno David Gallery”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, November 9, 2005 Crone, Tomas. “Bruno David to Open on Friday”, 52nd City, October 2005, http://blog.52ndcity.com/archives Beall, Hugh. “The Bruno buzz”, West End Word, October 26, 2005 Miller, Rob. “Bruno David Gallery: Inaugural Exhibition”, Saintlouisart, October 25, 2005. Beall, Hugh. “Bruno David Gallery: Inaugural Exhibition”, Illusion Junkie, October 25, 2005. Web Video. http://illusionjunkie.blogspot. com/2005/10/bruno-david-inaugural-exhibition.html Bonetti, David. “Bruno David Gallery: Inaugural Exhibition”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, October 20, 2005

Sieloff, Alison. “Grand Grand Center”, Riverfront Times, October 19, 2005 Bonetti, David. “Gallery musical chairs”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, October 1, 2005 Murphy, Anne. “Art News”, The Healthy Planet, September 2005, Cooper, Ivy. “Abstract Painting: Six Points of View”, Riverfront Times, November 10-16, 2004, p. 40, St. Louis, MO. Callahan, Teresa. “Abstract Painting: Six Points of View”, West End Word, October 27-November 2, 2004, p.13. St. Louis, MO. Weir, Alex. “The Symbiosis of Pride and Biology”, Riverfront Times, October 20-26, 2004, p.32 St. Louis, MO. ___________ “Hot Picks”, Vital VOICE, October 8-22, 2004, p. 15. St. Louis, MO. Bonetti, David. “Artist Celebrate Elliot Smith With Works Incorporating 20,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 3, 2004. p. F6. St. Louis, MO. Cooper, Ivy. “1984-2004 Twentieth Anniversary Celebration At Elliot Smith”, Riverfront Times, September 29-October 5, 2004, p. 178. St. Louis, MO. Martelli, Rose. “Smith Elliot: The Gallery Looks In The Mirror For Its 20th.”, Riverfront Times, September 15-21, 2004, p. 32. St. Louis, MO. Bonetti, David. “Legends of the Fall - Critic’ Picks,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 2, 2004. p. 2 (Get Out). St. Louis, MO. Cooper, Ivy. “Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Art...”, Riverfront Times, July 28-August 3, 2004, p. 42. St. Louis, MO. Bonetti, David. “Everything Show”, , July 18, 2004. p. F8. St. Louis, MO. Cooper, Ivy. “Size Matters”, Riverfront Times, June 9-15, 2004, p. 39. St. Louis, MO. ___________ New American Paintings, Midwest Issue, August, 2004. ___________ National Juried Art Exhibition. Exhibition catalogue, El Dorado Museum, El Dorado, KS, 2003. _________ Southern Illinois Artists Exhibition, Exhibition catalogue, Mitchell Museum, Mt. Vernon, IL, 2003. _________ “Paintings by Kahler on Display at Chicago Gallery”, Charleston Times Courier, December 16, 2002. _________ “Anatomica: EIU Art Professor’s Work Exhibited in Chicago”, Charleston Times Courier, Cover of Lifestyles section, March 20, 2002. _________ Chicago Reader. Exhibition announcement with photograph, Chicago, IL, April 5, 2002, March 15, 2002, April 11, 1997. _________ Artists/Alumni: Masters of Fine Arts from Northwestern’s Department of Art Theory and Practice. The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art Press, Exhibition catalogue, Northwestern University, 2001. 72-3, 109. Guo, Yang Chang. “Christopher B Kahler,” Vermont Studio Center Press, Liao Ning Fine Arts Publishing House, 2000, pp. 145-151. McConnell, Gordon. Americas 2000. Minot State University Press, Exhibition Catalogue, Minot State University, ND, August-September 2000. _________ 17th Harper College National Print and Drawing Exhibition, Harper College Press, Exhibition catalogue, Harper College, Paatine, IL, 1993.

ARTISTS Laura Beard Martin Brief Lisa K. Blatt Bunny Burson Carmon Colangelo Alex Couwenberg Jill Downen Yvette Drury Dubinsky Beverly Fishman

Damon Freed Joan Hall Kim Humphries Kelley Johnson Howard Jones (Estate) Chris Kahler Bill Kohn (Estate) Leslie Laskey Patricia Olynyk

Gary Passanise Judy Pfaff Daniel Raedeke Charles Schwall Christina Shmigel Thomas Sleet Buzz Spector Cindy Tower Mario Trejo Ken Worley

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