Nic Nicosia: homemade stories

October 09 - November 13,2021

From Erin Cluley Gallery: "ERIN CLULEY GALLERY is pleased to announce the latest solo exhibition by artist Nic Nicosia, homemade stories 2020-2021. The exhibition will be on view October 9th through November 13th, 2021 at the gallery’s main location, 150 Manufacturing Street, Suite 210. The gallery is open weekly Wednesday through Saturday, 12 – 5 PM and by appointment. An opening reception will be held October 9 , 5 – 8 PM with the artist in attendance. Nic Nicosia’s cast of mischievous bug characters, titled dreamboats, return in his newest solo exhibition, homemade stories 2020 – 2021. First appearing in his 2019 exhibition, they symbolize the bugs of daily life that take various forms, based on subconscious doodles of whimsical insects born from the artist’s imagination. Many of the newer creatures in this exhibition, although clearly bug-like, display anthropomorphic qualities like that of Nicosia’s earliest dreamboat sculptures– bearing hands, feet, or human facial features and expressions. Also making an appearance are new iterations of Nicosia’s bighands – the same character depicted in his large-scale outdoor steel sculpture recently acquired by the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, TX. Currently installed in the museum’s sculpture garden, the caricaturized self-portrait figure with oversized, realistic hands (modeled after the artist’s own), stands eight and a half feet tall with its arms stretched out in front of itself. bighands reemerges in the new work, on a smaller scale, embodying different poses in sculpture and drawings – with its hands at rest or holding one of the bug-like creatures. A particularly exciting component of the exhibition is a suite of photographs reminiscent of Nicosia’s early work. Though he has continued photography throughout his extensive career, the new photoworks mark a reemergence of the particular manipulation process that he became well known for in the 80s. Nicosia begins by capturing an image to serve as the setting of a particular piece and manipulates a physical print of the image by hand, using drawing, painting, and collage. The artist then rephotographs the product to capture it as the final image. Set in various scenes around Nicosia’s home, the photographs include imagery of many of his other works (some of which will be displayed in the gallery), mixed in with his own furniture, pets, and household items. This action of carrying the works beyond their initial implementation continues the artist’s longstanding tradition of using self-referential material and results in a delightful, immersive world of his own making.   About the Artist NIC NICOSIA was born in 1951 in Dallas, TX. He received a BS in 1974 in Radio-TV- Film from The University of North Texas with a concentration in motion pictures. He subsequently applied his cinematic mind-set for the making of a still image and is recognized as a pioneer of the staged photographic movement that came into prominence in the early 1980’s. Following a 1982 solo exhibition at Artists Space in New York, he was included in the 1983 Whitney Biennial, and the Guggenheim’s 1983 Exxon National Exhibition. He has been included in several biennials including Documenta IX in 1992, and a second Whitney Biennial in 2000. In 1999 the Contemporary Arts Museum, in Houston, launched a 20-year retrospective of Nicosia's work; Nic Nicosia, Real Pictures 1979-1999. A 2nd major survey of his work was exhibited at CASA in Salamanca, Spain, in 2003. Museums that have acquired Nicosia’s work include: The Guggenheim Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum, The Los Angeles County Museum, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, The Dallas Museum of Art, The Nasher Sculpture Center, and The Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Grants and awards include a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant in 1984, Awards in the Visual Arts - AVA 11 in 1991, and The Tesuque Foundation, Artist Fellowship Grant in 1998. The University of Texas Press produced a major career retrospective, Nic Nicosia, released in October of 2012. The book includes over 160 images and film stills from 1980 through 2011. Nicosia currently lives and works in Dallas, TX.   About Erin Cluley Gallery Erin Cluley Gallery is a contemporary art gallery representing emerging, mid-career, and established artists from Dallas and the United States. The gallery presents a provocative program of artists working in both traditional and alternative forms including painting, sculpture, new media, photography, sculptural installation and public intervention. In 2014, Erin Cluley Gallery ignited a creative movement in West Dallas acting as a hub for visual arts and community engagement. After nearly five years on Fabrication Street, the gallery has moved its operation to Riverbend – a development in Dallas’ Design District celebrating the intersection between culture and commerce."

Reception: October 09, 2021 | 5-8 pm

Erin Cluley Gallery 150 Manufacturing Street, Suite 210
Dallas , Texas 75212
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