main gallery

VISITATION
Paintings by Dustin London

Manifest is proud to launch its 14th season with five galleries of paintings, with these works by Dustin London serving as the entryway in our Main Gallery. London's seven large paintings invite visitors into an energetic conversation across the gallery and through the gallery windows out onto the street and Woodburn Avenue. The dialog buzzes with the allure of the images' electronic origins, visually expressing a life that is not quite living, but vibrant and appealing nonetheless.

Of his work the artist states:

"I think of pictorial space as something malleable, something that is shifting and subversive. In my paintings I am looking for a finely calibrated balance of idiosyncratic elements that creates a new, oftentimes paradoxical, spatial proposition. Space is not the stage for an event; it is the event itself. 

My latest works begin as self-generative digital drawings. Working in front of a monitor for long periods of time induces a disembodied state; a total immersion where a sense of the tangible world is lost in a digital space that is weightless, without surface, consisting only of light. As visual relationships develop on the screen, they suggest possibilities for translation into the tactile reality of paint. The trackpad becomes a proxy for exploring imagined terrains. The painting process is then one of testing, trying to find a specific, though sometimes antagonistic, marriage between insistent surfaces and indefinable depths. 

Portions of these paintings are made through a cumulative process similar to that of a dot matrix printer. Small, individual strokes or bands are painted in a regulated and mechanical fashion that forms gradients through minute striations of individual colors. These gradients become conveyor belts, moving planes of space with color. Multiple underlayers of contrasting color amplify and complicate chromatic relationships on the surface, and create an internal luminosity reminiscent of the screen, as painting chases the digital aura of the original image.”

Dustin London's work has been exhibited at venues including NURTUREart in Brooklyn, Heskin Contemporary in New York City, Emily Davis Gallery at the University of Akron, the Untitled Art Fair in Miami Beach, and TSA Gallery in Brooklyn. He has been an artist-in-residence at Yaddo, Millay Colony, Willapa Bay AiR, Jentel, Vermont Studio Center, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. London is a recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship and his work has been featured in New American Paintings, Fresh Paint Magazine, Paint Pulse Magazine, and The New York Times. He received a BFA from Michigan State University and a MFA from the University of Pennsylvania. He currently lives and works in Ann Arbor, MI and is an Assistant Professor in the School of Art & Design at Eastern Michigan University. 

This exhibition is one of 8 selected from among 139 solo proposals submitted for consideration for Manifest’s 14th season.

drawing room

AQUACHROME
Contemporary Watercolor

Aquachrome was last presented as part of the lauch of the Fresh Paint biennial in 2013. We are pleased to announce its reinstatement as a permanent element of the biennial, and look forward to showcasing and documenting works of watercolor, alongside the wider spectrum of painting, every two years.

Quite possibly the oldest form of painting, watercolor persists today, defying narrow categorization and broad stereotype. Practiced for centuries in concept development preliminary to 'finished' paintings made in oil or other scale-worthy durable media, watercolor also found favor with botanists, illustrators, and portraitists, and was applied to varied and countless surfaces.

The nature of the media itself represents a delicate and dictatorial transparency, fluidity, and a potential for expressive spontaneity. This not only makes it an ideal vehicle for contemporary art, but also one of training, intensity, philosophy, and play for any who practice it. Where an artist can easily dominate other painting media, forcing a will through viscous layers into a work of art like taming a wild horse, with watercolor there is dialog, compromise, and undeniable forthrightness. In this way the artist practicing watercolor works with a tiger in the room.

For this exhibit 44 artists from 24 states, Australia, and Canada submitted 142 works for consideration. Thirteen works by the following 9 artists from 5 states, and Canada were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.

Presenting works by:

Nat Borges
Sarasota, Florida

Corey Drieth
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Pauline Goldsmith
Miami, Florida

Soyoung Jung
West Lafayette, Indiana

Emily Kaelin
Cincinnati, Ohio

J. Li
Brooklyn, New York

Harriet Livathinos
Kingston, New York

Yeachin Tsai
Troy, New York

Scott Waters
Toronto, Canada

     Nat Borges

     Corey Drieth

     Emily Kaelin

parallel space + central gallery

FRESH PAINT 2017
3rd Biennial Painting Exhibition

At some point many generations ago society reached a level where ordinary people could spend a lifetime perfecting their ability to mix and apply paint, in extraordinary ways. Manifest established FRESH PAINT as a permanent biennial project in 2013 to inaugurate our expanded gallery. FRESH PAINT 2017 is the third biennial presentation of this international survey of contemporary painting.

FRESH PAINT joins Drawn as a recurring gallery exhibition designed to complement our annual INDA and INPA (drawing and painting) publications. Every two years it launches our exhibition season by presenting a competitive group exhibition focused exclusively on painting.

For this exhibit 116 artists from 22 states, Canada, China, England, France, Indonesia, and Ireland submitted 362 works. Eighteen works by the following 17 artists from 15 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.

Presenting works by:

Beverly Barber
Brookline, Massachusetts

Pirjo Berg
Grand Forks, North Dakota

Evan Boggess
Shepherdstown, West Virginia

Patti Brady
Greenville, South Carolina

Gerry Chapleski
Broomfield, Colorado

Craig Cully
Tucson, Arizona

Margaret Davis
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Mike Demi
Milroy, Pennsylvania

Peter Green
Lakewood, Ohio

Joseph Holsapple
Thibodaux, Louisiana

Marcus Michels
Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Jenniffer Omaitz
Kent, Ohio

Edmond Praybe
Arnold, Maryland

Adam Reed
Kingwood, West Virginia

Benjamin Shamback
Mobile, Alabama

Sheldon Tapley
Danville, Kentucky

Xi Zhang
Salt Lake City, Utah

     Xi Zhang

     Jennifer Omaitz

     Edmond Praybe

     Pirjo Berg

north gallery

BLIND SPOT
Paintings by Benjamin Lowery

Benjamin Lowery's seven paintings conclude a five-gallery suite of exhibits focusing on painting. Counterbalancing the concurrent exhibit in our other street-facing gallery, that of works by Dustin London, Lowery's paintings are also quite large, colorful, and engaging across a wide radius. Fittingly, the energy of this show matches that of its counterpart, but with a more direct and light-hearted narrative, softening expectations, and inviting consideration on what is perhaps an unfamiliar level.

Of his work the artist states:

"A swimmer is momentarily blinded while drying his face and unwittingly stumbles over sunbathers. A man with an inner tube tries to insert himself into a crowded group of strangers in a swimming pool. These humorous subjects are a foil for the formal explorations of the work. As each piece develops, they become pictorial inventions that resist, complicate or disrupt the narratives. In particular, I am looking for a formal poise careening toward imminent disaster. This is amplified by various motifs in the paintings that play graphic clarity against spatial ambiguity, formal precision against awkward form. A recurring theme is the tension between the seen and the unseen, both from the point of view of the viewer and the subject. All of these devices are employed to activate the paintings in a surprising way that is interdependent with their original narrative impetus.”

Born in Waukesha, WI, Benjamin Lowery received an MFA from Indiana University and a BA from the University of Dallas. He has also studied at the Mount Gretna School of Art and the Jerusalem Studio School. His work has been exhibited nationally in New York City, Pennsylvania, Indianapolis and Dallas. Lowery lives and works in Richmond, Indiana and is a visiting professor at Earlham College. 

This exhibition is one of 8 selected from among 139 solo proposals submitted for consideration for Manifest’s 14th season.

Preview Reception: Thursday, November 9, 6-9pm
Public Opening: Friday, November 10, 6-9pm

Preview Reception: Thursday, December 14, 6-9pm
Public Opening: Friday, December 15, 6-9pm

Preview Reception: Thursday, January 25, 6-9pm
Public Opening: Friday, January 26, 6-9pm

Preview Reception: Thursday, March 8, 6-9pm
Public Opening: Friday, March 9, 6-9pm

Preview Reception: Thursday, April 19, 6-9pm
Public Opening: Friday, April 20, 6-9pm

Preview Reception: Thursday, May 31, 6-9pm
Public Opening: Friday, June 1, 6-9pm

Preview Reception: Thursday, July 12, 6-9pm
Public Opening: Friday, July 13, 6-9pm

Preview Reception: Thursday, August 16, 6-9pm
Public Opening: Friday, August 17, 6-9pm