MARIAH DEKKENGA
BEHIND DOORS
APRIL 14 - MAY 15, 2022
Opening Thursday, APRIL 14, 6-8 PM
SITUATIONS presents new paintings by Mariah Dekkenga in an exhibition titled “Behind Doors” on display from April 14 - May 15, with an opening on Thursday, April 14, from 6-8pm. Rooted in traditional painting techniques such as glazing, layering and texture manipulation, Dekkenga’s work explores the disconnect between physical and virtual worlds. How images function and how one relates to them as things that transcend their physicality are key concepts. Formal systems expand her approach into how complex relationships like color and form structure our thinking, and create experiences that can not be easily defined or described through language. The limitations of language, when it comes to describing phenomena and physical experience, is a core component of Dekkenga’s work.
Dekkenga uses design software as a drawing tool to arrange and rearrange compositions on the computer. Through the process of intuitive variation within a fixed set of compositional parameters, Dekkenga looks for instances where the manipulation of individual variants changes the essence of the formal system as a whole; when the original impulse behind the identity of the formal structure breaks down and something new or unpredictable emerges. Using the painting process as a mode of reflection, Dekkenga internalizes what is distinct or unique and carries it through to the next composition.
In the six paintings on display, a thick gestural impasto is applied with acrylic modeling paste. Several thin layers of oil paint are then painted by hand over the textured surface. In order to dissolve the demarcation between forms, blurred edges and gradations are created where two shapes meet. The visual effect is a constant shift of focus between two distinct picture planes - the image that is painted and the underlying texture - the technologically smooth grid of forms contradicts the expressive brushwork underneath.
MARIAH DEKKENGA (b. 1978, Marathon, WI) lives and works between Doha, Qatar & Randolph, VT. Dekkenga has held solo and two-person exhibitions at SITUATIONS, New York; Aetopolous, Athens Greece; Eli Ping Frances Perkins, New York; Mass Art, Austin TX; and Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA. Selected group exhibitions include Clifton Benevento, NY; Suzanne Geiss, NY; The Hole, NY; Denny Gallery, NY; Kraftwerk Gallery, Berlin; Takt Kunstprojectraum, Berlin; Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA; and The Fire Station, Doha, Qatar. In 2013 Dekkenga produced a public mural for A.U.N.T.S. Movement Research, Brooklyn NY and designed a Chapbook cover for Elizabeth Zuba published by The Song Cave in 2015. She graduated from The University of Iowa with an MFA in 2008 where she received the Mildred Pelzer Lynch Fellowship. Her work is held in the collections of QMA Qatar Museums, Doha, Qatar; Aïshti Foundation Collection, Beirut, Lebanon; Chase Bank, The New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY, and The United States Embassy in Nogales, Mexico.