Š 2010 Mark Moore Gallery and Kim Dorland Published by Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, CA front cover image: Passed Out, 2008 (detail)
MARK MOORE GALLERY
MARK MOORE GALLERY 2 5 2 5 M i c h i g a n Av e A - 1 Santa Monica, CA 90404 www.markmooregallery.com
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All images appear courtesy of the artist and Mark Moore Gallery. No portion of the contents may be reproduced without the express written permission of the publisher.
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Acting as a chronological survey, Mark Moore Gallery:Statements introduce a featured gallery artist through images and candid interview. From noteworthy early examples to present bodies, the works featured in Statements act as an overview of the varying practices and movements implemented by a given artist in tandem with their thoughts and interpretations.
Nostalgia oftentimes evokes the most layered of emotions. Fondness and longing for bygone eras evolve as the effects of our maturation color our memories a different hue, creating an ever-morphing palette from which we create our autobiographies. Such is the mindset and aesthetic employed by contemporary painter Kim Dorland, as his densely tactile application of acrylic, oil, spray paint, marker, fur, nails, stickers, glass and metallic foils converge into generously textured depictions of reality and fantasy alike. Engaging with the common mythologies associated with the rural and the suburban, Dorland creates a frank and seamless relationship between the two. Stargazing teenagers, stumbled-upon wildlife and twilight skinny dipping elicit a similarly palpable sense of wonder and discovery through their visceral representations and bespeak encounters often discounted by youthful nonchalance and romanticism. The disparate nature of the mundane and the eccentric finds uncanny harmony through Dorland's distinctive hand and liberal cocktailing of mediums.
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KIM DORLAND
Interviewed by: Catlin Moore, Mark Moore Gallery Manager Catlin Moore: You've cited artistic preferences as diverse as Tom Thomson, Picasso and Diane Arbus. Given the eclectic list of artists you admire, what kinds of art historical elements inform your work? Kim Dorland: It changes from artist to artist. With some artists I might be interested in their approach to mark-making, or their use of color and space. In the case of Arbus, it's the psychological charge of the work. I try to just keep looking at old and new art to find interesting things to “borrow." I’m not an artist who lifts and combines other artists' style, I do - however - try to make personal what interests me visually or conceptually. My taste is incredibly varied and I think my paintings reflect that. CM: Much of the imagery in your work employs nostalgic autobiographical content. When considering various memories (or fragments thereof), what makes you select certain ones to paint? KD: I usually pick from experiences that still resonate with me in some way. I grew up in this crazy small town called Red Deer in Alberta. I’ve never really seen another place like it. I don’t really hate it and I don’t really love it, but living there really affected me. It’s just this strange town where you could go for a walk and see a wicked fist fight on the street and then come face to face with a deer half a block down. It’s also really quiet and suburban. There are times where I fabricate a narrative so that I can explore other things like place or time, but for the most part that place is Red Deer in the late 80’s and early 90’s. CM: Some viewers have claimed that your portraits exude a subtle violence, but you don't agree with that association. How would you characterize those works? KD: I understand why there is a violent reading to those paintings, but I really mean for them to be portraits in the most fundamental way. They aren’t finished until they resemble the sitter, most often [my wife] Lori. I suppose the difference is that these
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Sleepwalker, 2010 oil and spraypaint on wood 60 x 48 inches
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paintings don’t just look like her; the physicality of the paint makes the KD: I’m interested in the way that work feel like her and carry her presence too. human presence and activity can be depicted without the people CM: You often create scenes that deal with discovery, confrontation actually being in the paintings. It gives and interaction; some featuring civilization and wilderness, others a the space a sense of history, experience and kind of coming-of-age vitality. Why are these themes significant to you? a narrative rather than just painting attractive landscapes. KD: I like the edges of things where the most tension exists. I’m interested in spaces and narratives that feel as if there is something very intense either CM: Earlier works of yours tend to predominantly feature images of about to happen, or the aftermath of the event. The coming-of-age vitality is suburbia and nature, alongside the portraits, while more recent another kind of edge: you aren’t quite an adult but you aren’t a kid anymore works have also featured aspects of mythology and pop culture. either. You are old enough to drink, or have sex or have a car but way too How do these new components feed into your overall concept? immature to handle real responsibility - not because you don’t want to - just KD: Images of myths like the Canadian Sasquatch, or the "heavy metal" because you are so fucking young! It’s a bizarre and very powerful time. guys lost in the forest relate to my interest in loner types - the Sasquatch being the ultimate loner figure. I’m a bit of a loner myself, so these are CM: Has having children had an impact on the way you interpret effectively self-portraits. memories from your adolescence, and the way you depict them? KD: Not really. I still look at my kids and stare in disbelief that they are CM: Can you describe your process and when you know a painting mine! I love them so much... is complete? KD: The painting usually arrives at a place where I know I’ve done enough CM: Your wife, Lori, is a reoccurring character in much of your work. of what I wanted to do, and allowed the painting to assert its own voice. What does she ultimately symbolize for you? If the final painting looked exactly like I saw it in my head, why would I KD: I love to paint her. She has a quality that is still mysterious to me even bother to paint it? I love it when the process of making art takes me in though we’ve been together since we were kids and I love to try to new directions, false starts, etc. It’s not a bargaining process however - I capture that essence in paint. always joke that the painting has to die for it to be done. CM: Certain artists have dealt with varying nuances and culturally CM: Your palette - even within the same painting at times - ranges fueled forms of mark-making: Cy Twombly, Jackson Pollock and from monochromatic and natural hues to bold neons. What goes into more recently - Amanda Ross-Ho and Mario Ybarra Jr. You also the decision behind that choice? address this in your work, but why do you choose to remove both the KD: I love color. I love to play with it and try odd and unusual combinations figures, and the first-person method of achieving this? to see what will happen. My approach to this is intuitive and not overly
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deliberate. This also comes from looking at other paintings. For example, I love Whistler’s nocturne paintings for the mood or psychological tone they create through that sort of atmospheric color. My color is much more synthetic than his, but I will look at his paintings and start a work with something similar in tone to see where it leads me. CM: Do you find that you have any habits or rituals before you begin a new body of work or painting? KD: I watch movies like crazy to see how others deal with similar themes, spaces or narratives that I’m thinking about. I also listen to a lot of music for the same reason. I am researching a new body of work right now and my ideas are vague - words like “wasteland” and “apocalypse” have been running through my head. I’ve been watching apocalyptic movies, or movies dealing with dark themes or something visual that I’m interested in. I just watched The Road Warrior, No Country for Old Men (again and again!) as well as Let the Right One In. I’ve been listening to Leonard Cohen’s The Future as well as heavy metal and black metal. I’m going to read The Road by Cormack McCarthy again. These are starting to come together to help me hone in on what I want to do for the next body of work. I also run my ideas by Lori and we discuss them for weeks and months. She’s been there since the beginning and she usually knows what I’m after visually before I do! CM: In closing, if you had to select one thing for viewers to take away from your work, what would it be? KD: I want the viewer to respond to the work on many levels: the material, the color, the narrative or psychological component. I want them to look at the painting and be attracted by the beauty of the material, but then dig in to the deeper content and experience the space. Ultimately, I guess I want the viewer to take a piece of me away with them, because these paintings are all really a piece of me.
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Bats, 2010 oil and acrylic on wood 30 x 24 inches
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Aurora Borealis, 2010 oil and spraypaint on wood 36 x 48 inches
“There is a delightful hard edged and graphic quality to Kim Dorland's oil paintings, which is repeatedly countered by a free and naughty hand that sneaks in to prevent the paintings from becoming too tight.” - Emma Gray, Saatchi Gallery Blog First Snow, 2010 oil, acrylic and pen on wood 60 x 60 inches
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High School Portrait, 2010 oil and spraypaint on wood 96 x 72 inches
“Like his use of color, Mr. Dorland's paint handling often has a surprising delicacy and control. It offsets the mindless, overwrought machismo that his work both exudes and parodies.” - Roberta Smith, New York Times
Fawn, 2010 oil, acrylic, pen and silver leaf on wood 60 x 60 inches
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Eastview Sev #2, 2010 oil, acrylic, spraypaint, copper leaf and pen on wood panels 96 x 216 inches
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Super! Natural!, 2009 oil and acrylic on wood 96 x 144 inches Permanent Collection of The Sander Collection (Berlin)
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“Kim Dorland examines the psychic, sentimental spaces of his upbringing in Canada through sumptuous impasto layers. At once playfully calling attention to their own physicality, as well as Dorland’s personal narratives, the paintings are at once emotive and expansive.” - Sasha Lee, Beautiful/Decay Magazine
Passed Out, 2008 oil and acrylic on wood 35.5 x 48 inches Kiss, 2009 oil on wood 72 x 60 inches
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Permanent Collection of The Blanton Museum (Texas)
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Horses, 2008 oil, acrylic and spraypaint on wood 48 x 60 inches Permanent Collection of The Neuman Family Collection
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“With Dorland, we get realer pleasures of a tangible natural world, in all its spectacular indelicacy.”
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Aaron Rosen, ArtNet
KIM DORLAND Born 1974, Wainwright, Alberta, Canada Lives and works in Toronto, Canada EDUCATION 2003 MFA, York University, Toronto, Canada 1998 BFA, Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, Vancouver, Canada SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2010 New Work, Mike Weiss Gallery, New York, NY 1991, Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, CA Kim Dorland, PULSE Contemporary Art Fair, New York, NY 2009 Canadian Content, Skew Gallery, Alberta, Canada Kim Dorland, Bonelli Arte Contemporanea, Mantova, Italy Super! Natural!, Freight + Volume, New York, NY Project Room, Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, CA Her, Parisian Laundry, Montréal, Canada 2008 Bonelli Arte Contemporanea, Mantova, Italy North, Freight + Volume, New York, NY 2007 Somewhere in the Neighborhood, Bonelli Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA About a Girl, Angell Gallery, Toronto, Canada Over the Fence, Skew Gallery, Calgary, Alberta, Canada Kim Dorland, Centro Cuturale Cascina Grande, Rozzano, Italy 2006 The Edge of Town, Kasia Kay Art Projects, Chicago, IL Kim Dorland, Angell Gallery, Toronto, Canada Into the Woods, Contemporaneamente, Milan, Italy 2005 Kim Dorland, Skew Gallery, Calgary, Alberta doubletake, Angell Gallery, Toronto, Canada 2004 Paintings of Desire, Angell Gallery, Toronto, Canada Hunting Scene, Fly Gallery, Toronto, Canada 2003 Overload, Katherine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto, Canada 2002 exquisitenorth, Luft Gallery, Toronto, Canada
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2001
Sun Of The Golden West - Paintings by Kim Dorland, 1080BUS Gallery, Toronto, Canada It Looks Like Art, West Wing Gallery, Toronto, Canada
GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2009 Holy Destruction, Galerie Polad-Hardouin, Paris Giving Face: Portraits for a New Generation, Nicholas Robinson Gallery, New York, NY Home, Westport Arts Center, Westport, CT substancial resources, Art Gallery of Sudbury, Sudbury, ON 2008 People, Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York, NY Carte Blanche Volume 2: Painting, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto, Canada 2007 Rear/View, Freight + Volume, New York, NY Out Behind the Shed, Richard A. and Rissa W. Grossman Gallery, Lafayette College, Easton, PA RBC Canadian Painting Competition Touring Exhibition, Ontario College of Art & Design; Galerie díart Louise-et Reuben-Cohen; MacLaren Art Centre; Winnipeg Art Gallery; Emily Carr Institute Art+Design, Canada Gary Goldstein, Jenny Dubnau, Kim Dorland and Sally Heller, Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York Oil Spill: New Painting,s, Saw Gallery, Ottawa, Canada Notions of Wilderness, Kasia Kay Art Projects, Chicago, IL Summer Group Show, Angell Gallery, Toronto, Canada 2006 RBC Canadian Painting Competition Touring Exhibition, Ontario College of Art & Design; Galerie díart Louise-et Reuben-Cohen; MacLaren Art Centre; Winnipeg Art Gallery; Emily Carr Institute Art+Design, Canada Three Painters: group show, Howard House Contemporary Art, Seattle WA The Daily Constitutional, Kim Dorland, Bruce Wilhelm,
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ADA Gallery, Richmond, VA Impression/Ism: Contemporary Impressions, Brea Art Gallery, Brea, CA You don’t want to miss that shit: Contemporary painters at the Gladstone Hotel, Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, Canada Blame Canada, Harvey Levine Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Best of BUS: Volume 1, Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto, Canada Little Stabs at Happiness, Clint Roenisch Gallery, Toronto, Canada If I Ruled The World, Red Head Gallery, Toronto, Canada Crossing Borders, Hopkins Hall Gallery, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH Keep Six, Kitchener, ON, Canada Deathfuck, Art System Gallery, Toronto, Canada New Friends, 1080BUS Gallery, Toronto, Canada
GRANTS AND AWARDS 2006 Ontario Arts Council Emerging Visual Artist Grant 2004 Toronto Arts Council Creation Grant 2004 Canada Council for the Arts Emerging Artist Creation/Production Grant 2003 Toronto Arts Council Level 1 Visual Art Grant 2001 Talent Scholarship, Graduate Programme in Visual Arts, York University PUBLIC COLLECTIONS ALDO Group, Montreal Bank of Montreal The Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation The Glenbow Museum, Calgary The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal The Neumann Family Collection, New York Oppenheimer Collection, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City Royal Bank of Canada The Sander Collection, Berlin
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Woods, 2007 oil, acrylic and spraypaint on canvas 72 x 96 inches back cover: Bedroom Window, 2010 oil and acrylic on wood 36 x 48 inches
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