D U N N A N D B R O W N C O N T E M P O R A R Y
| Artists | Exhibitions | Publications | Editions | Gallery | Location | Contacts | News/Events | The Contemporaries |
PRESS RELEASE
Brian Fridge
Composition in Black
June 15 through July 16, 2001
Dunn and Brown Contemporary is pleased to announce a one-person exhibition of recent work by Fort Worth-based artist Brian Fridge. For Composition in Black, Fridge has transformed his exhibition space by completely darkening the usually light-filled main gallery at Dunn and Brown Contemporary. Fridge’s installation-based work in this show includes two recent video works and seven still photographs. Consisting purely of black-and-white video and photography, the installation and darkened exhibition space offer the viewer the experience of physically stepping into one of Fridge’s compositions.
The installation is anchored by Fridge’s two video pieces. Projected over a twenty-square-foot area, Vault Sequence No. 10 reveals a mysterious universe of silent forms, twisting and turning through space. Described by viewers as a kind of "mini-galaxy," the images resemble star clusters, nebulae, and black holes. Over one hundred feet away at the opposite end of the exhibition space, Vault Sequence No. 2 appears on two side-by-side monitors, mounted on the gallery wall. The monitors display the emergence and simultaneous disappearance of a cosmic cluster. Straightforward in both execution and presentation, Fridge’s silent, black-and-white videos hypnotize the viewer through their slow and graceful, unedited movements.
This exhibition marks the first time that Fridge has shown still images. A new medium for Fridge, the black and white still photographs isolate and capture individual moments in time, displaying an ambiguity similar to that found in his video work. Both the "Vault Sequence" videos and photographs display seeming images of natural phenomena – images which the artist has, in fact, videotaped inside his home freezer. As described by the artist, the videos and photographs are "an amalgam of displacements... a cartoon of the great outdoors created inside a home appliance and articulated in the public language of video."
A recent graduate of the University of North Texas, Fridge has captured the attention of curators, critics, and collectors with his powerful and sublime moving images. Fridge’s work has been featured in the prestigious 2000 Whitney Biennial, as well as in numerous national and international exhibitions, including Out of the Ordinary: New Art from Texas (Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas, 2000) and Crossing State Lines (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, 2000).
Brian Fridge will be present at the opening reception on Friday, June 15 from 6:00 until 8:00 p.m., and he will give an artist talk on Saturday, June 16 at 2:00 p.m. Dunn and Brown Contemporary is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 until 5:00 and by appointment.