Ben Dallas + Jonathan Parker: Confluence

Pie Projects is pleased to announce the opening of Confluence: Ben Dallas and Jonathan Parker, on Saturday, January 28, 2023, with a reception from 4-6pm. 

 

The exhibition will feature works by Santa Fe artists Ben Dallas and Jonathan Parker. Ben Dallas' subtle abstract works exist in a realm between painting and sculpture; Jonathan Parker's painted and sewn canvases suggest a language guided by subconscious repetitions and elaborations. The exhibition will be on view through February 18, 2023.

Ben Dallas paints on delicate wood constructions and assembled materials such as layered canvases. "My intention as a visual artist is to defy conventions and invent new aesthetic relationships by pursuing the untried - respecting its power to bring me and others around to what it offers." The mysterious design and the three-dimensionality of his works invite the viewer to spend time with the pieces, looking for marks, chromatic shifts, delicate lines, wax layers, and unexpected folds. Dallas' work can seem hermetic, but a closer look reveals exquisite and poetic compositions.

 

Dallas received an MA in Art History from the University of Illinois in 1971. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious Fullbright-Hayes Fellowship. His work has been in exhibitions nationally including the Rockford Art Museum (Rockford, IL), Orange County Center for Contemporary Art (Santa Ana, CA), Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (Chicago, IL) and the San Francisco Craft and Folk Art Museum (San Francisco, CA).

 

"I rely on the physical qualities of my materials - canvas that is stained or marked, with raw cut edges that have a rough feeling - to evoke different associations." - Jonathan Parker

Jonathan Parker works by cutting fabrics and canvas, sewing them together, painting, adding sewn shapes and then stretching the piece over stretcher bars. His artworks include elements of drawing, painting, and more provisional approaches like mending and appliqué. Parker is self-taught. His work has been in many exhibitions nationally including New Mexico Museum of Art (Santa Fe, NM) San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles (San Jose, CA), and the Oakland Museum of California, (Oakland, CA). He has been awarded several  residencies including Yaddo, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Blue Mountain Center, and Headlands Center for the Arts Affiliate Artist Program.