Bill Conger: the sadded peal
@ 65GRAND
1369 W Grand Ave., Chicago IL
Opening Friday, February 28th, from 6PM - 9PM
On view through Saturday, March 29th
65GRAND is pleased to present Bill Conger: the sadded peal, the artist’s first exhibition with the gallery.
On view is a group of new collages on aluminum from an artist whose practice spans painting, sculpture and conceptual gestures. “Bells” is a numbered, ongoing series of works marking a departure from his sculptural practice. While the use of found material (detritus, printed matter, manufactured objects) has remained constant, Conger’s degree of manipulation has varied. Where he created delicate assemblages of carefully selected and arranged found objects such as martini glasses, tea lights and four-star hotel towels, he now presents dense accumulations of found images.
The masses of fashion magazine clippings that make up “Bells” are small in scale, referencing not only their source, but also human proportion. The original photographs have been cut and torn into fragments so small their origin is abstracted. The result is an emergence of commonalities: overall color, tonality, line and texture. The size and fussed over detail draws the viewer in to closely examine them in a one-to-one relationship. Like scrutinizing one’s face in a mirror, the obsessive nature of their making matched by our intense gaze.
Bill Conger lives and works in Peoria, IL. Recent solo exhibitions include “Coming Dark: Selected Works from 2004 – 2014”, currently on view at the Clara A. Eagle Gallery, Murray State University, KY; and Used to Love, at Golden Parachutes, Berlin, Germany in 2012. Group exhibitions include “Haxen Daze” at Normandale College, Bloomington, MN and “House of Seven Gables” University Galleries of Illinois State University; Bloomington, IL, both in 2013; and “M21”, an exhibition of civic sculpture in the town of Langelois, Austria, in 2011. Conger has been interviewed by Make Space and Studio Break and featured in the Chicago Tribune.
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Tags: 65GRAND, Bill Conger, West Town
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