Emerson Dorsch is pleased to present Six Years, a solo exhibition featuring the work of Berkeley, California-based artist Mel Davis. The exhibition, which encompasses 30 pieces created over the past six years, is an investigation of memory, history, and the evolution of painting.
Mel Davis approaches her practice by focusing on individual bodies of work. Her style transforms based on the topics she engages with. This method stems directly from how she looks at painting; she places an emphasis on observing the memories that arise each time she encounters a particular work. “It’s impossible to make a painting without thinking of past paintings. We are always in dialogue with images that came before us,” Davis says when speaking about how the culmination of imagery in our lives affects how artists work today. “In an age where there isn’t a hierarchy on how we can use images, artists can take from all different kinds of sources to create their own palette.”
In her exploration of painting, Davis often recreates works through a new lens, one influenced by, or infused with, memory. She turns to art history in order to create a conversation between the past and the present—although instead of longing for the past and feeling a sense of nostalgia, the artist describes her process, rather, as a commemoration of the past. In Book (after Matisse) (2018-2024), Davis pays homage to Henri Matisse by painting an image of a cover design that the famed artist produced for an exhibition catalog in 1951.
The original work was made of paper cut-outs and is a horizontal piece; Davis’s version is a vertical oil on linen of a different scale. She recalls the impact Matisse had on painting, transforming it in a way the world hadn’t seen before, and offering an escape from reality. In his post-WWII works, the artist’s use of bold color and abstract forms offered beauty and respite in the shape of domestic bliss in the middle of a still-devastated Europe.
Similarly, in other works from the exhibition, we are reminded of our relationship with Pablo Picasso, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Sandro Botticelli. It’s as instant as taking that first glance—we immediately know the reference. But Davis’s works have an additional element that we may not be as familiar with. She adds her own reference, her personal memory comes into play, and we can see her recalling a certain sentiment or history which is her own. An image of a portrait may be flipped, a black on white work on paper becomes an oil on canvas painted blue, or the scale of an original work is made smaller (or larger). Whatever it is, we are now confronted with a layered perception of the work.
In Postcard from Italy 1 (2024), Davis includes a number of historical elements on one canvas. She’s looking at Sandro Botticelli’s The Annunciation (ca. 1485-92) because in this particular image of the Madonna and the Angel, she sees a rhythm in the figures. To her, the scene is less about a message from God, and more of a ballroom dance. Perhaps we wouldn’t have noticed this by looking at Botticelli’s painting, but in Davis’s version, it’s clearly part of the narrative. This form of playing with history, or as she calls it, “making a collision with history,” is emblematic of her work. She’s interested in using a variety of sources in her reproductions—in one instance she paints a Hellenic sculpture that may not actually exist, but she recreates a type of figure that we connect with because it already exists in our minds, in our collective memory.
Themes of femininity, delicacy, and tenderness are found in her paintings of hands holding flowers. This is her way of exploring, much like Picasso did, how much you can say with the least amount of lines and color. What can painting do, or describe; what can painting be; in its most abbreviated form? Beyond paintings of flowers, her still lives emphasize objects as an everyday universal truth. Here, the sources may be coming from the past, but these concepts are very much present today.
Taking inspiration from the Wolfgang Tillmans’s installation at the Albertinum in Dresden (2018), Six Years displays Davis’s paintings at different levels throughout the gallery walls with purposeful moments of pause in between works—a thoughtful consideration of how they interact with each other and the space. The exhibition design presents us with a rich tapestry of works that reflect both personal and historical dimensions. In this way, it’s not just her paintings, but the installation, too, looks to the familiar as a reference to build a new narrative structure.
Emerson Dorsch is pleased to announce Mothman in the Bardo, an exhibition of new works by Judd Schiffman. The exhibition opens on Thursday, September 19th, and will be on view through November 2, 2024.
Judd Schiffman’s artistic practice traverses mythological symbolism, personal introspection, and spiritual exploration. His ceramic pieces are here to tell a story, and his latest solo exhibition presented at Emerson Dorsch, Mothman in the Bardo, does exactly that—it features a new body of work in which Schiffman’s protagonist navigates through personal rites of passage.
Mothman first appeared to Schiffman at a cryptozoology museum in Maine as a life-sized mannequin. From that moment, he became a surrogate archetype for the artist, serving as a lens through which to understand what masculinity can mean. Part moth, part man, he is delicate, yet powerful; a figure who represents the “wounded healer” and who reflects Schiffman’s own exploration of fatherhood and reciprocity with the natural world.
Over time, Mothman has become more meaningful in Schiffman’s work—he has transcended the 1960s folkloric West Virginian mythical creature and developed beyond form, characterizing a symbolic bridge between the earthly and the otherworldly.
It’s as if the Mothman we see in the exhibition is shamanic; he has an ability to communicate with nature in a way that humans have forgotten how to. In various pieces in the exhibition we see this connection through the way in which the figure’s body is intertwined with intricate systems of crystals and fungi. For example, in Bardo of Death (2024), an arm protrudes out of a crystal formation and is entangled by a mushroom growing up towards its hand. It’s clear that Mothman is one with the Earth, making peace with his body’s connection to nature—especially in death.
Schiffman’s investigation into the bardos and incorporating them into his work stems from his ties to Buddhism (he jokes about being a “basic Buddhist”). In Tibetan Buddhism, the bardos represent the gaps, or intermediate states, experienced between life and death. They are: this life, meditation, sleep and dreams, death and dying, clear light, and becoming. Typically, three are experienced during this life, and three during death and rebirth. Where Buddhism’s essential teachings about suffering can be a hard pill to swallow, the bardos have offered Schiffman a sense of relief—it’s a way of framing the concept of “everything changes” in a way that makes sense, allowing him to understand the significance of time in a profound way. There’s a beginning, a middle, and an end to everything we experience, and things will never happen in the same exact way again. This way of reading a period of time, or the gaps in between states, proposes that we live in the present.
In the exhibition, Schiffman portrays Mothman going through the different bardo states in six ceramic sculptures. The story of life and death is told through pieces that emphasize the importance of being bound to the Earth. The Earth is growing around him, and at the same time he is growing into It. This soul connection to nature is key to the artist—he sees his work as an extension of his life and spiritual practice. Surrounding these six sculptures are works that help to tell the story of Mothman’s transitions. Ten undulating candle pieces called the mourners are there to help guide Mothman to the next stage, a nod to his relationship with Jewish cultural identity. In another work, Perfect Teacher (2024), a dog whose fur is so detailed it evokes Van Gogh’s thick impasto brushstrokes, serves as Mothman’s spiritual guru and reminds the artist of a meditation teacher he once had in Arizona. And lastly, in one of his wall pieces, Heir to the Glimmering World (2024)—a title borrowed from the Cynthia Ozick novel—Mothman looks down at a mask, as a mythological skunk stands proudly nearby, presenting himself as a guide and seemingly making a statement about the wonder of life and everything we have inherited; “look at this world, this is our time, we are here now.”
Much like the bardos, Schiffman describes the process of making his works as being in a constant state of flux. He builds the ceramic pieces with wet clay, lets them dry, glazes the works, packs them, stores them in a warehouse, then ships them off to another, where they are eventually unpacked and begin a new life. This way of looking at the lifespan of an artwork, makes clear the connection that Schiffman feels to his creative process. He talks about ceramic sculpture in particular carrying a heaviness with it that seems magnetic to the Earth. Their 3D form means Schiffman can go beyond representation and explore the cavernous spaces that he brings to life. Unlike his previous works where ceramic pieces were bound to the wall in what he calls paintings, these new sculptures are alive in a different way. If bardos is about being bound to the Earth, the sculpture has to be heavy, a gravity has to exist. Schiffman builds worlds around us with his work, and although the narratives he creates are closely related to his personal experiences, there is a sense of the collective throughout his stories. The rites of passage that Mothman goes through are transitions we are all going through, and ones we will all ultimately face. As he guides us through the bardos, we are reminded that everything is always in a transformative state, opening an opportunity for us to live in the moment and evolve in the in between.
Emerson Dorsch is a contemporary art gallery with two complementary roles: to represent a core group of select South Florida-based artists, to host and represent excellent emerging and mid-career visiting artists. The gallery’s name reflects the partnership in art and life between the husband and wife team Brook Dorsch and Tyler Emerson-Dorsch. We believe in the joys of an artful life, of experiencing art close to the source. Through all the gallery’s activities, we foster art patronage and artistic community.
Brook Dorsch founded Dorsch Gallery in the early 1990s to exhibit Miami-based artists. Tyler Emerson-Dorsch joined the gallery in 2008 after earning a Masters from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. After almost 25 years, the gallery moved a second time to Little Haiti, a neighborhood northwest of downtown Miami.
Open to all visitors from 11—4 pm. Progressive Art Brunch brings together participating galleries several Sundays throughout the year. The event highlights the current programming at each venue and enables visitors a more intimate look at the exhibitions on view.
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