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Don Colley Sweat Lodge
Don Colley Fuel
Don Colley Blue Moan
Don Colley Carnival Boracho
Don Colley Glazed Eyes
Don Colley The Chef's Fistic Example
Don Colley Exhibition Announcement Drawing
Don Colley Untitled
Don Colley Untitled
Don Colley Eclipse
Don Colley Untitled
Don Colley Untitled
Don Colley Big Ass Polka Dots
Don Colley Untitled
Don Colley Gemelos
Don Colley The Persuasive Argument
Don Colley Untitled
Don Colley The Turkish Knot - Lens 1
Don Colley The Turkish Knot - Lens 2
Don Colley The Turkish Knot - Lens 3
Show Announcement
Show Announcement (continued)

Press Release

Oct 15 - Nov 16, 2002

During October and November, George Adams Gallery will present the work of Chicago artist Don Colley. Entitled The Turkish Knot, the exhibition will feature a series of glazed tiles, plastic scratchboards, and sketchbook drawings. This is Don Colley's debut exhibition in New York.

The title of the exhibition, The Turkish Knot refers to a knot without a discernible beginning or end. Colley's use of the term is an allusion to the complexity of inter- and intra-cultural relationships. He represents these ideas in the form of extremely detailed drawings and paintings, rendered in a comic-book aesthetic.

The focus of this exhibition is a narrative series comprised of small-scale, colorfully glazed tiles depicting a violent clash between the people of a small town and a visiting carnival. For example, Turkish Knot: Lens 1 shows a young woman as seen from an extreme bird's eye view. Tightly holding a gun, she is surrounded by bloodied carnival workers.  In the related piece Turkish Knot: Lens 3 a clown figure dressed in an outlandish policeman costume stands amidst broken bricks, shards of glass, and pools of blood. With a nod to conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East, Colley's metaphorical narrative plays out the eruption of tension within a poly-cultural society.

Along with the tile paintings, the exhibition will also include several works in which the artist has incised fine lines into laminated sheets of colored plexiglass. These scratchboard drawings explore similar themes of social friction overwrought with a sense of impending violence. For example, Sweat Lodge a 12 x 13-inch acid yellow scratchboard depicts a pumpkin-head figure and two menacing snowmen interrogating a scarecrow, while in Blue Moan meticulously scratched into an electric blue plastic--a band of snowmen traverse a moonlit landscape.

Also on view will be several double-sided pen and ink drawings taken from Colley's sketchbooks.  Although juxtaposing numerous unrelated images on a single page, the sketches are as fully developed as the carefully detailed scratchboard drawings and tile paintings.

Born in 1954, Don Colley received his BFA from the University of Texas at Austin in 1980.  His work has been exhibited widely in the Chicago area and Philadelphia. This is his first solo exhibition in New York.


Exhibition Checklist

1. Sweat Lodge, 1999
scratched plastic
12 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches
DCp 01

2. Hoopla Luminosa, 1996-97
scratched plastic, mixed media
22 1/4 x 26 1/4 inches
DCp 03

3. Fuel, 2002
laminated plexiglass
9 1/2 x 12 1/8 inches
DCp 6

4. Blue Moan, 1998
scratched plastic, mixed media
18 x 24 1/2 inches
DCp 02

5. Carnival Boracho, 1996
scratched plastic
21 1/2 x 25 1/4 inches
DCp 04

6. Glazed Eyes, 2002
pen and ink on paper
11 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches
DCd 02

7. The Chef's Fistic Example, 2002
hand-colored intaglio print
edition of 10
15 x 18 inches
DCr 02

8. Exhibition Announcement Drawing, 2002
pen and ink on paper
13 1/4 x 19 inches
DCd 1

9. Untitled, 2001
glazed porcelain tile
6 x 6 inches
DCt 07

10. Untitled, 2000
glazed porcelain tile
6 x 6 inches
DCt 06

11. Eclipse, 2001
glazed porcelain tile
6 x 6 inches
DCt 04

12. Untitled, 2001
glazed porcelain tile
6 x 6 inches
DCt 05

13. Untitled, 2002
glazed porcelain tiles
12 3/8 x 24 1/4 inches (triptych)
DCt 19

14. Big Ass Polka Dots, 2002
glazed porcelain tile
6 x 6 inches
DCt 02

15. Untitled, 2002
glazed porcelain tile
6 x 6 inches
DCt 11

16. Gemelos, 2002
glazed porcelain tile
6 x 12 inches (diptych)
DCt 17

17. The Persuasive Argument, 2001
glazed porcelain tile
6 x 6 inches
DCt 01

18. Untitled, 2001
glazed porcelain tile
6 x 6 inches
DCt 03

19. The Turkish Knot - Lens 1, 2002
glazed porcelain tile
6 x 6 inches
DCt 12

20. The Turkish Knot - Lens 2, 2002
glazed porcelain tile
6 x 6 inches
DCt 13

21. The Turkish Knot - Lens 3, 2002
glazed porcelain tile
6 x 6 inches
DCt 14

22. Dirty Snow, 1993
plastic scratchboard, wood frame
12 1/4 x 14 3/4 inches
DCp 05