Fri 1/19-Sun 4/15
Since graduating with a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2000, painter Dana Schutz’s career trajectory has been explosive. She attracted major attention almost immediately after getting her MFA at Columbia University in New York for her vivid, almost flashy, paintings with their carnival-esque characters and fantastic narratives.
She earned even more attention last year when her 2016 painting Open Casket, based on news photos of Chicago child Emmett Till, lynched while visiting relative in the south, in his coffin, was shown in the Whitney Biennial last year. It evoked an outpouring of both outrage and support with protestors demanding its removal or even its destruction.
Now Schutz will be returning to Cleveland as a true art star with her show Eating Atom Bombs at the Transformer Station. These 12 paintings and three drawings, mostly made in the last year, are steeped in the political environment of the past year and reflect the uncertainty around it. She says, “Many of the paintings depict dystopic scenes of conflict and shame. Subjects conceal and reveal themselves, trying to hold themselves together as well as the picture.”
“In her newest works, Schutz continues to reflect on the quickly changing social and political landscape in the U.S.,” says Reto Thüring, who curated the show. “In a manner that is characteristic for Schutz, the paintings are comical and sad, playful and grave at the same time.”
The show opens with a reception Fri 1/19 @ 6-8pm and remains on view through Sun 4/15. It’s free and open to the public.
On Sat 1/20 @ 1pm, Schutz wll participate in a conversation with artist/historian Nell Painter on the potential of painting as a medium in general and Schutz’s work specifically.
Cleveland, OH 44113