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Past exhibition |
Jeff DeGolier
Fringe Benefits
From: September 22 to November 3, 2007 Proof Gallery is pleased to present its inaugural exhibit Fringe Benefits by Brooklyn-based artist Jeff DeGolier. Jeff DeGolier’s eccentric kinetic sculptures often evolve over years and are composed of magpied bits of objects, scavenged and assembled to fantastical and decrepit effect. In motion, they evoke the hum of post-industrial urban life. In photograph, the landscapes are transformed again and flirt with the sublime in the manner of Color Field paintings. DeGolier’s investment in re-use, re-appropriation, re-interpretation and revision is a process that mirrors the cyclical development of the urban landscapes to which his works allude. Glamorizing what would otherwise be deemed junk, his practice echoes the overwhelming contemporary compulsion for embellishment and self-improvement (pimping, customizing, lifting, sculpting, reshaping, renovating) but with an eye toward examining the links between futility and beauty, wrongness and poetry. In imbuing trash objects with glitz and aspirational motion, he poses questions about our notions of value, beauty and utility. Through endless operations of tinkering and adjustment, DeGolier’s preoccupation with honing the evocative potential of every odd end results in embedded moments of poignant, diamond-clear specificity. Jeff DeGolier was born in Bellingham, WA, in 1974 to a family of fishermen, boat-builders, and immigrant socialist dockworkers. He received an MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago and two BFA’s from the University of Washington in Seattle. He has exhibited at the Ulrich Museum of Art (Wichita, KS) the Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago, IL), the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (NY, NY), Howard House (Seattle, WA), the New Museum of Contemporary Art (NY, NY), Soil Gallery (Seattle, WA), Consolidated Works (Seattle, WA), and the Tacoma Art Museum (Tacoma, WA). His work is collected by Bill and Ruth True, David Lewis, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. - Artist’s web site
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