From Erin Cluley Gallery:

"ERIN CLULEY GALLERY is pleased to announce Thresholds of Uncertainty – a solo exhibition by artist Catherine MacMahon. The exhibition will be on view January 8^th through February 12^th, 2022 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 Saturday January 8^th, 5 – 8 PM with the artist in attendance.

Catherine MacMahon’s work explores tension by challenging how materials and process can be controlled or unrestrained. Binding and resistance are often met by unraveling and release. Underlining the uncertainty and contradiction at the core of the human condition – MacMahon presents sculpture and works on paper – finding her way through these concepts by way of her studio practice.

There is a sense of in-betweenness in MacMahon’s work. Hers is a quest to find hidden strength and latent fragility. The work suggests abstract liminal states, which question polarities, certitude, or fixed narratives, in favor of delicate deviances.

MacMahon’s practice also involves the exploration, and sometimes rejection, of the feminine identity ascribed to materials and structures. Her work reconsiders drawing embodied as sculptural practice and rigorously challenges what constitutes an interior space, how it is formed, and what social constructs are veiled within it.

In her second solo exhibition with the gallery, MacMahon will present a body of new sculptural works – a continuation and reimagination of her works made from thread-wrapped steel rods. With the addition of other materials like yarn and sequins, the works hone in on MacMahon’s blurring of what constitutes a drawing or a sculpture. Presented alongside the sculptural works will be a new body of work using Shibori – the Japanese technique of shape-resist dyeing. MacMahon has redefined this process for herself using indigo dye on paper.

Related to the thread-wrapped steel rod works – and for the first time in a gallery setting – MacMahon  will present a new video work.

CATHERINE MACMAHON was born and raised in New Orleans, LA. She attended college at the University of Texas at Austin where she was greatly influenced by the teachings of Lois Weinthal, who was instrumental in merging critical theory and practice in the design studio at the newly-developed Interiors program in the School of Architecture. Following graduation, MacMahon took a job in San Francisco with McCall Design Group, an architecture firm engaged in the market of fashion and in questions of seriality, temporality and transience. Yearning for a return to the critical dialogue around ideas of what constitutes an interior and realizing that her interests and ideas fell somewhere in between Architecture, Art and Design, she pursued an MFA in Design at California College of the Arts, an institution known for its fluidity in cross disciplinary thinking and making. While at CCA, she become very involved with the Textiles Department, learning many traditional techniques in dyeing, weaving, basketry, printing, etc. She was particularly devoted to a course in Shibori, the Japanese art of shape-resist dyeing, led by Ana Lisa Hedstrom, who would later introduce her to art historian, scholar, professor and author, Yoshiko I. Wada. After CCA, MacMahon moved to New York City and began building a studio practice. In 2006, MacMahon went on a fiber study tour of Japan with a group of artists and scholars led by Wada. That trip would greatly affect the work MacMahon began making in her studio.

MacMahon received her Master of Fine Arts degree from California College of the Arts in San Francisco in 2006 and completed a Bachelor of Science from the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture in 2002. She lives and works in Dallas, TX.

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.

In April 2021, Cluley opened Cluley Projects – a satellite location in West Dallas acting as an incubator space focusing on regional artists and providing a platform for discovery and mentorship."