DANA OLDFATHER:
GIVE US A FENCE AND SOME ROOM TO RUN
Prior to this summer, my experience with printmaking had been limited to a high school course and the Monothon at Zygote Press in 2007. I was welcomed back to the communal studios of Zygote in May of this year with open arms by the precise and knowledgeable Anthony Bartholomew and the exuberantly creative Liz Maugans. Their kind guidance of the processes of etching, screen printing, and monoprinting was motivating and I was encouraged often to experiment. My aim was to learn the rules of printmaking, choose those that mattered most, and allow the prints to inform and develop my aesthetic and conceptual vernacular rather than trying to force current work onto the processes.
This exhibition of prints, paintings, and installation, examines the transitory nature of comfort, power, control, and security, and how it affects our sense of freedom. Screen prints of objects I see every day – a living room light switch, draped hoodie sleeves, and my favorite shoes ride luminescent monoprints of repeating pattern. Abstract etchings resembling spindly biological machines jig across the paper. As in my earlier work, movement and contrast are important. A sense of travel is achieved. Freedom and independence are a large part of my process, both conceptually and formally. Structure, however little semblance there may be, is ultimately necessary. Complete freedom is chaos that begets chaos. As always, I remain hopeful; I embrace constitution. Give me a fence and some room to run.
Dana Oldfather was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1978. She is a self taught oil painter who has been in exhibitions in galleries and museums across the country, including POV Evolving Gallery in LA, and The Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown. Oldfather is the newest and youngest featured artist at Ink Dish in San Diego, CA, with whom her dinnerware designs were featured in the New York Times. She is proud to have been awarded a residency at the Vermont Studio Center for April, 2011 and Zygote Press for the summer of 2011. Oldfather is currently represented at The Bonfoey Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio and eo art lab in Chester, Connecticut with whom her paintings have been featured in The New York Times as well. She is proud to be included in corporate collections such as Jones Day, Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas, The Cleveland Clinic, and the prestigious Progressive Art Collection. Some of her biggest art influences and favorite artists are Willem DeKooning, Richard Diebenkorn, Reed Danziger, and Jackie Tileston. Oldfather currently lives and works in Cleveland, Ohio.