Charles Dunn: Demons

January 30 – March 7, 2010

Number 35 is pleased to present new works by Charles Dunn. This is Dunn's first solo exhibition at the gallery and his first solo exhibition featuring paintings.

Robert Storr once wrote that in Philip Guston's works you can see "pure pleasure in painting" yet an "anguish manifested." It is from this place where Charles Dunn creates his work. Coming from the suppressive Midwest, Dunn creates forms that awkwardly interact, swope and move, try to connect and fail, exist on one plane and then fall back into another. The forms almost want to create something tangible but instead fall into a visual trope, a colorful allegory for the graffiti that usurps the idyllic suburban landscape.

In the few paintings in this exhibition, Dunn creates forms that try to soar, move and dance and yet are confined within the limited size of the rectangular canvas. Similarly, the monochrome 3-dimensional piece displayed alongside these works mimic their restricted movement. Within these carefully treated surfaces and limited color palate, there is a chthonic presence, a surge of something unearthly bubbling right beneath the surface. It could be the ghosts of abstraction past, or the frustration that exists in all of us unwilling or able to break out of what confines us.