Matt Ballou & Joel T. Dugan’s collaborative paintings
The South Gallery is a newly reconfigured space that will feature a different artists each month. Our first show features Matt Ballou & Joel T. Dugan’s collaborative work.
PHONEME: A COLLABORATION
Since 2013 artists and educators Joel T. Dugan and Matt Ballou have conducted a collaborative effort, largely via the shipment of artworks back and forth between each other. The works develop with little critique or overarching direction, allowing for an instinctive, intuitive interaction between these two very different – yet kindred – image makers.
Over the years this partnership has resulted in a number of exhibitions including IN CAHOOTS at es ef eff gallery in Brooklyn, NY, Ballougan at Fort Hays State University in Hays, KS, and Portal at Imago Gallery and Cultural Center in Columbia, MO.
This current iteration of their co-creative efforts is titled Phoneme. A phoneme is any of the basic abstract units of sound that underpin a verbal language. In the context of this visual work, we imagine that archetypal shapes, evocatively textured surfaces, and the dynamic between linear digressions and chromatic masses could result in an almost synesthetic resonance. Might these heavily-worked abstract forms suggest sounds or parts of a word? Are they the gestation of an alternative alphabet?
We are excited to offer a space where one or two artists can work out an idea, show a cohesive body of work, or tell us a story using their creative vision. We will have an application open in the spring for people interested in having their own show in the South Gallery for 2021.
Looking out of the South Gallery windows onto 9th St.
