Charles Dunn: hell on earth

March 31 – May 6, 2012

numberthirtyfive is pleased to present new works by Charles Dunn. hell on earth will bring together paintings, drawings, and sculpture which, in the brink of despair and frustration, breed new relationships of the forthright honesty lacking in mainstream circuits..

There is a range of beliefs about 2012 - everything from Armageddon to the spiritually transformative. It is with this timely superstition that we meet the works of Charles Dunn (b. 1969, Ohio). His previous show with the gallery presented abstract paintings whose forms migrated between pictorial planes, like the chthonic presence of graffiti usurping an idyllic suburban landscape. Here, the paintings rest in the foreground, its few forms giving hints of its ghost in the washy surfaces. These images are incomplete; pieces of them have eroded away like the singed rubble of an apocalyptic state or centuries-old stone on a riverbed. Not to be a harbinger of bad fortune, Dunn's work is consistently rewarding in his feeling for color. The rich palette reinforces compositional structure and provides unexpected harmonies. Even in the most pale and subtle combinations, Dunn creates a defiant presence. Unpredictable palettes twist into lyrical structures that soar, move, dance and yet are confined by the canvas. Perhaps hell on earth isn’t about the afterlife, but the world we create for ourselves- be it apocalyptic or spiritually enlightening.

In his newest sculptures, Dunn explores geometric shapes and subcultural imagery in layers of wood, Plexiglas, and paint. In these works, we meet the symmetry and minimalist palette absent from the works on canvas. Working 3-dimensionally, Dunn is free to showcase his ability to play with shape and light, to deconstruct and reconstruct, to engage his viewer from all angles. He creates forms with restricted movement. Dunn cleverly alludes to pentagrams and other symbols of paganism while refusing to stray from a limited visual language. Within his carefully treated surfaces and structures surge "anguish manifested" waiting to burst.

“My Mash Up of Street Smart Modernism Armed with Lasers”, Hyperallergic, Howard Hurst, February 7, 2012.