Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by Susan Dory. Motherlode is a series of process-oriented paintings that break down complex shapes into lively investigations of activated space, form and color.
Layering remains an important aspect of Dory’s work, and the layers of paint depict the passage of time during the creative process. Tape is used as a drawing tool to block out distinct areas of the canvas, but the shapes remain interconnected and interdependent in the compositional whole. The top layer of paint is often poured directly onto the canvas, providing a subtle organic and topographical texture.
Color is an evocative and powerful element in Dory’s work. The artist embraces Josef Albers’s notion that color is experiential, and their relationships to each other are both magical and logical. The colors themselves often dictate the progression of her paintings, and the palette in this series is visually generous, drawing on both natural earth tones and vibrant synthetic hues. Dory draws inspiration from forms in nature as well as manmade materials.
Some of the works take biological geometry, such as navigational grid cells in the brain, as a starting point. These paintings evoke organic life viewed through a microscope, separate elements that create a collective and functional whole. Other pieces conceptually break down complex forms of manmade constructions such as architecture and fashion, flattened into silhouettes. Dory translates all of her sources of inspiration through the filter of the studio and daily life, creating what she calls a “fantasy geometry.” The organic patterning found in the work—repeating, stacking, and layering shapes and colors—is an energetic celebration of the living world, both in nature and the built environment.
Susan Dory was born in Oklahoma City, OK and currently works and resides in Seattle, WA. She studied at the Iowa State University in Ames, IA where she received a Bachelor’s of Arts. Dory has received both national and local awards including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, the Willard R. Espy Foundation Artist-In-Residence Fellowship and the Behnke Foundation’s Neddy Artist Fellowship. Dory’s works have been featured in The Seattle Times, Art in America and Blouin Art Info.
