Flesh + Bone: Drew Dodge and Tiger Rocha

Exhibition Dates: March 2 - April 1, 2023

Opening Reception: Thursday, March 2 @ 6PM-8PM

103 Allen Street, Lower East Side

1969 Gallery is pleased to present, Flesh + Bone, a two-person exhibition featuring new work by artist couple Drew Dodge and Tiger Rocha. The two painters have vastly different styles of painting and subject matter, but what connects their work is the idea of a “core”. The crux of their practices reside in Dodge’s animal skulls and Rocha’s portraits of his muse, Dodge. Dodge and Rocha’s paintings face each other on opposite walls, positioning the viewer between flesh and bone. The intense gaze of vacant-eyed skulls and Dodge’s vibrant eyes exhibit a palpable connection.

Dodge describes his skulls as being both vacant and fierce, animal and human, alive and dead. The coexistence of these paradoxes built into the same object makes the skull such a fruitful subject for Dodge. Dodge says, “It’s almost as if the skulls paint themselves.” They are ambiguous self-portraits, but to a viewer, they function as mirrors to confront mortality. Despite their perceived lifelessness, the skulls are absorbent and empathetic. In dialogue with Rocha’s portraits, the skulls come to life more obviously, taking on a human-like sentience, positing themselves as portraits.

Rocha’s portraits catch his muse in moments of intensity under multi-colored light. Rays of color scatter across the planes of Dodge’s face, flattening skin into blocks of color, communicating something beyond flesh. The colored shapes shift between focus and blur, activating certain features and dissolving others. In each painting, Dodge inhabits the void-like spaces with a specific energy and emotion that materializes through color. By choosing to only paint one subject, Rocha multiplies Dodge into endless configurations that emphasizes the range of human existence.

At the start of the exhibition, Dodge’s forward-facing skulls exist in elemental environments, which transition to solid introspective spaces. The end of the exhibition reveals the back side of the skull, exposing the complex cavities and inner workings of his subject on raw canvas. Adjacent is a painting of the front of the skull on solid grey, mirroring the color of the gallery walls, expanding beyond the canvas edge.

Rocha’s first painting in the exhibition depicts Dodge with eyes shut, signaling a moment of potential energy. The following paintings are energetic, with eyes open, a current which flows into the back of the space. Finally, the exhibition concludes with a band of rainbow light that stretches across two separate portraits, displaying the full spectrum of Dodge.

For inquiries, please contact: 

Amanda Barker | e: amanda@1969gallery.com

About 1969 Gallery

Founded in September 2016, 1969 is a contemporary art gallery, with two gallery spaces in Manhattan’s Lower East Side and Tribeca neighborhoods. Through solo / group / external exhibitions and art fair presentations, the Gallery has cultivated the careers of its represented artists and a broader community of artists primarily devoted to painting.

Follow 1969 Gallery on Instagram via @1969gallery.