Dana Powell CLOSER THINGS 

curated by Amy Feldman

Opening Reception: Saturday, November 12, 6-9 pm 

Saturday, November 12 - Sunday, December 18, 2016

286 Stanhope Street, Ground Floor
Brooklyn, New York 11237

SARDINE is pleased to present Closer Things, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Dana Powell, curated by Amy Feldman. The exhibition opens on Saturday, November 12, 2016 with a reception for the artist that evening from 6-9pm. The exhibition represents the artist’s first solo exhibition with SARDINE.

Dana Powell isolates mundane objects and spaces, surpassing preconceived notions of the quotidian. Restrained palette and low-lit subjects establish a seductive and contemplative arena; they are meditations, for both the artist and her audience. The series of works presented at SARDINE carefully distill their subjects to essential means, awaking and allowing the viewer to see and feel that which is often overlooked. 

A cornucopia of bananas, apricots, pears, and pumpkins, serve as intimate portrayals of life, decay, sex and desire. Apple pipe, depicting a granny smith apple punctured through its skin, becomes a symbol of forbidden pleasure and an object of desperate vice. Empty landscapes and hollow interiors, remnants of places once occupied, bridge time and space, invoking poignant, uncanny narratives.    

With her banal subject matter, Powell questions the impulse to paint, and its imperative. She awakens the viewer to senses often under acknowledged, and creates sincere pictures that are at once, melancholic, euphoric, and tranquil.  

Dana Powell (b. 1989, Milwaukee, WI) received her BFA from The Cooper Union (2015). She had her first solo exhibition with The Still House Group in March 2016 (Brooklyn, NY). Powell's work has been included in recent group exhibitions at Leila Heller Gallery (New York, NY), To____Bridges  (Bronx, NY), and Motel Gallery (Brooklyn, NY).