Saturday, September 18, 2010

James Rieck & Jonathan Monaghan at Hamiltonian

September 18 - October 30, 2010 
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 18th, 7-9 pm.

Hamiltonian Gallery announces a new exhibition where fairy tale meets flesh in two parts: James Rieck, Mead Hall; and Jonathan Monaghan, Life Tastes Good in Disco Heaven. Whether in Monaghan's digital constructs or Rieck's masterly-engineered paintings, both artists appropriate the iconographies of storytelling and marketing to question notions of power and subjugation.

Five paintings comprise the series Mead Hall, inspired by the heroic epic poem Beowulf, and The Monsters and the Critics, J.R.R. Tolkien's consequential 1936 lecture on the literary work. James Rieck deftly arranges cropped images from historical paintings, seductive women, and medieval props to present a contemporary interpretation of the medieval classic.

Jonathan Monaghan explores the dialectical nature of an increasingly simulated world with his new work, Life Tastes Good In Disco Heaven. Monaghan's work ultimately is about indifference and loss, which is illustrated by integrating corporate iconography into pseudo-religious landscapes. His iconic subject matter is both familiar and alien playing on our desires, dreams, and dread. His virtual creations allude to the eerily present dilemma of responsible consumption. By subverting popular commercial culture, Monaghan's work presents a moral question left unanswered.

Hamiltonian Artists
1353 u street, nw
suite 101
washington | DC | 20009

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