DAYTON — The Contemporary Dayton (The Co), located at 25 W. Fourth St., Dayton, presents three new exhibitions that explore the math of space. These exhibitions will be on view from April 15 – July 2, in The Co’s galleries, with an Artist Talk on opening night from Arturo Herrera at 6:30 p.m. The exhibitions are free and open to all Wednesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., and during Summer First Fridays, May – September 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.
The Contemporary Dayton presents “Between,” recent work and a site-specific double wall mural by globally renowned Venezuelan artist Arturo Herrera.
Melding abstraction, collage and pop culture imagery, Herrera has produced an innovative vocabulary using modernist strategies of fragmentation, re-composition and repetition. His new mixed media works straddle painting, sculpture and installation, extending into the gallery spaces via large, colorful, writhing murals.
Herrera has had solo exhibitions at Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva; Dia Center for the Arts, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City; among others. His work also appeared in the Whitney Biennial in 2002.
The Contemporary Dayton is pleased to also present “A voice from I don’t know where,” new paintings by nationally acclaimed Dayton-based artist Tyler Macko, which address the idea of a crumbling Americana at the nexus of domesticity, consumption, comfort, memory and loss.
Culling from the history of American decorative arts, Macko creates unique physical worlds that by visually sampling and manipulating imagery from things such as rugs, consumer goods and tile patterns that function as humble registers of legacy, decor and identity.
Macko’s solo exhibitions include Simchowitz Gallery, Los Angeles, Calif.; HG Gallery, Chicago, Ill.; Brackett Creek Editions, Monks Mound, N.Y.; and No Place Gallery, Columbus, Ohio.
The Contemporary Dayton presents a selection of films by Mansfield, Ohio-born and internationally acclaimed artist Kevin Jerome Everson. Directing his lens at the lives of black Americans, he creates poetic narratives of family, work, struggle and celebration. The film scholar and companion of the artist, Greg de Cuir, Jr., describes Everson’s work as driven by “the concern to record everyday black experience.” Using only a 16mm camera, Everson also considers the materiality of analog film and its capacity to reproduce reality while still capturing observations of universal phenomena such as the horizon, the cosmos, time and the play of light.
Everson’s films have been screened at MOCA, Los Angeles; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Tate Modern, London; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and Centre Pompidou, Paris.
The Contemporary Dayton also hosts Public Programs. One of the upcoming programs is Conversation: Saeed Jones in Conversation with Dionne Custer Edwards on Thursday, April 13. Doors will open at 6 p.m. and the conversation begins at 7 p.m. The program is free and open to all.
Opening night for Herrera’s exhibition is being held on Friday, April 14. The Members Preview is from 5 – 6 p.m. and the Artist Talk with Herrera is from 6:30 – 7 p.m. with a Public Reception from 6 – 8 p.m. Opening night admission is free and there will be a donation bar and light bites.
Gallery and co-shop hours: Wednesday–Saturday 11 a.m.–6 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m.–4 p.m. Closed Monday and Tuesday First Fridays from May through September is always free and open until 10 p.m.
For more information, call 937-224-3822 or visit codayton.org
