Dannielle Tegeder

7(x) = 2₀x + x₅^d-1 + (Yellow) - Drawings

October 17 - November 24, 2007

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The work of painter Dannielle Tegeder tempers whimsical, detached dream-state fantasy with quantitative visual shapes that denote a more ordered terrain. Tegeder's fine balance between chaos and mathematics, abstraction and materiality constitute an intriguing departure from her imagined blueprints of post-apocalyptic worlds, yet harbor the same suggestion of buried infrastructures and combinations of organic forms and architectural constructions. Vibrant biomorphic shapes are layered with enigmatic horizontal and vertical bands of contrasting hues, as if to represent a clash between various complex systems, but the resulting forms coexist almost effortlessly.

Tegeder's diagrammatic method provides a framework for her second solo exhibition with the gallery, 7(x) = 2₀x + x₅^d-1 + (Yellow). In these seven works on paper, she uses gouache, ink, colored pencil, graphite, pastel and various drafting tools. Like Tegeder's older work, these pieces are invested in the mapping of various spaces-planetary, geological, biological, and architectural-but the materiality of the work is much more actualized rather than merely inhering in the artist's utopian blueprints. Drawing on the concrete, kinesthetically tangible aesthetic of Constructivism, Tegeder's own pieces link the fine arts with the applied arts, and as a consequence, deviate from the flatness of her former work and approximate three dimensions. Linear patterns that point to technology and mathematically tangible processes merge with poetic, mobile-like representations of space and matter. Tegeder's angular contours are reminiscent of the vivid graphic forms of Kandinsky or Klee, but are also softened by gentler hues and a meditative, monochromatic ambience. Tegeder also draws from architects like Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid, along with a mechanized, futuristic aesthetic that points to Fritz Lang's Metropolis.

Tegeder's richly hued geometric compositions, devoid of human presence, are paeans to a utopian realm in which the microcosmic can be mapped onto the macrocosmic. However, her fragmented composition and tumultuous illustrative mixture of forms offer an emotive resonance that emphasizes her work's materiality and transcends the formula she attempts to describe.

Dannielle Tegeder received her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and presently lives and works in New York City. She has had solo exhibitions in the U.S. (Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and New York), and internationally (including Paris and Berlin). She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions at venues, such as PS1/MoMA, the New Museum, The Brooklyn Museum of Art and The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Tegeder has been the recipient of many residencies and grants, including Smack Mellon, The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, The Yaddo Foundation and the Marie Walsh Sharpe Studio Fellowship. Her works have recently been acquired for the Museum of Modern Art's Drawings Collection.

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