About the Exhibition
Elevate at 21c showcases the work of artists in the greater St. Louis community, highlighting the range and depth of visual culture in this dynamic, ever-changing city.
Ahzad Bogosian and Douglas Dale consider and recreate landscapes – both actual, physical spaces and places the artists remember and memorialize through their paintings and mixed media artworks. Each artist considers the line of the horizon, the connection between land and sky. By focusing on place and moments of atmospheric time, Bogosian and Dale present imagery that represents their personal connections to the world. As Dale says, “A location can be represented not only through its physical beauty, but the value assigned by one’s individual experiences, dreams, projections, and one’s ability to mentally visit a place and time without physical relocation.”
Ahzad Bogosian
Born and raised in St. Louis, Ahzad Bogosian’s paintings are a response to the atmospheric, abstract, and sublime qualities of landscapes. He considers himself a conduit between the formal and the spiritual, channeling the strength and beauty of midwestern skies to evoke a deeper place. Bogosian uses memory and photographs as the basis for his paintings, which are distilled versions of a place that, if not for his painted recreation would have only existed for a moment within the constant flux of sky, wind, light, and atmosphere.
Douglas Dale
In the shadowboxes of the Loose Threads series Douglas Dale uses their signature technique of binding strands of yarn piece by piece to create patterns reminiscent of wood grain. Multiple lengths of the fiber extend beyond their solid base, creating a liminal object that is both solid and fluid, wood and fiber, masculine and feminine. Through this technique, Dale questions false binaries constructed around traditional usage of these materials and seeks flexibility in existing social structures. The center lines of the Loose Threads series constitute a kind of horizon line though from a variety of points of view. While some places are portrayed with literal land formations, others expand to suggest the shapes of rivers, coast lines, building facades, inspirational artworks, a partner’s tattoo, a sonogram, and more, all derived from the artist’s memories. The series was inspired by the artist’s cross-country move during the height of the pandemic and the memories of a place that remain after leaving.
Artwork displayed courtesy of the artists and Duane Reed Gallery, St. Louis.
