Dana Frankfort
HI
On View: January 20th - March 5th, 2011
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 20th, 6-8 PM
LaMontagne Gallery is pleased to present HI, an exhibition of new paintings by Dana Frankfort
LaMontagne Gallery is also pleased to present A Simple Heart: Der Kleiner Mann, an exhibition of new sculpture and rubbings by Aaron Spangler
It is my privilege to serve as muse and glue for the exhibition "HI / A Simple Heart: Der Kleiner Mann" by Dana Frankfort and Aaron Spangler. How did this unlikely collaboration come about? What circumstances might unite Dana, the New York Jew, with Aaron, the backwoods hillbilly? Through myself of course, the backwoods hillbilly NY Jew. But let's not dwell on geographical and religious roots like a couple of blind fascists, angry about the failure of our revolution. There is a more complex story here. The genesis of the works in this exhibition came about when I asked Dana if she might report my problems to her analyst as though they were her own, as I was looking for answers but did not have sufficient funds to engage in therapy. Dana agreed, and took notes during the sessions with the intent of returning these to me. However, the notes turned out to be of little use in solving my various relationship troubles and financial woes, as they were written in oil paint on canvas. Also, most of them were just little phrases which had nothing to do with what the therapist was saying, any more than the drawings on a pad next to the phone relates to a conversation which has taken place there.
From these "notes" I extrapolated some guesses, mostly musings as to what might have been said, which I related again over the phone to Aaron. Now if ever there was a man who lived by the dictum "No thought exists without a material support," it is this man. To better actualize my reportage, he promptly set them to music and sent them back to me in the form of an album of bluegrass music in the tradition of Uncle Dave Macon, an Appalachian mountaineer whose music we shared an admiration for. The songs were brilliant and we decided to shop the album to record producers. But Aaron insisted that it was not ready. In his typical Wagnerian fashion, Aaron produced a series of artworks, prints, and sculptures, one for each song on the record, and each corresponding to the stations of the cross. With a final piece to represent the record's totality. Look for the lavish box set with reproductions of the artworks in the exhibition on "What The..." Records in 2012.
Dana Frankfort was born in 1971 in Houston, TX. She currently lives and works in Boston, MA. Frankfort received a BA from Brandeis University and an MFA from the Yale University School of Art. Recently, Frankfort has shown at the Inman Gallery in Houston and the Arbora Press in CA. Her work is currently on view in “Shifting the Gaze: Painting and Feminism” at The Jewish Museum, New York.
Aaron Spangler was born in 1971 in Minneapolis, MN and lives and works in Two Inlets, MN. Spangler received a BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Recently his work as been exhibited at Horton Gallery in New York, Zach Feuer in New York, and Kaikai Kiki Gallery in Taipei, curated by Takahashi Murakami. Awarded a McKnight Foundation Fellowship in 2009, his work will be exhibited at the Foundation this year. Spangler’s work will also be part of a 2012 exhibition at the Vigeland Museum in Oslo, Norway.