JEFFREY DELL - TIDAL WAIVE

Flatbed is excited to present an exhibition of new monotypes and an etching by Jeffrey Dell. The exhibition’s title “Tidal Waive” alludes to both the fluid spacial elements seen in many of these prints and a resistance to find titles for the singular works in the monotype series which are premiering in this exhibition. Dell uses traditional printmaking media to create works on paper that explore the fluid perception of space.

Monotype is a unique artwork most often created by painting or manipulating ink on a smooth surface then transferring the image onto paper using a press. In 2022, Dell worked in residency at the Officina Stamperia del Nortaio which is located in the small village of Tusa, Sicily and the new monotypes created during this residency will be shown in “Tidal Waive.”

In the summer of 2023, Dell also worked in residency at Flatbed Press. His new etching “A Live Ribbon and a Painted One” was co-published with Flatbed in an edition of 16, and is a chine collé aquatint etching.

Regarding the new monotypes, Dell states,

“This work was made in Tusa, Sicily. The town is on a hill, positioned above the Tyrrhenian Sea, a coastline with rocky forms moving quickly upward. I was trying to capture a sense of these stackings, the vertical expanse of things – gradients from foothill to peak, from horizon to high sky, and from the sea level to the depths.

These monotypes attempt to find fresh ground in an eternal dialogue between the dimensional and the flat, between the image as window into a space or as marks that embrace the flatness of the paper. In this dialogue I find much that reflects on us, and how we “read” and “see” images. The mind wants and expects to see certain things and is capable of leaping ahead. Mostly those leaps are amazingly correct, but sometimes they’re wrong. I’m trying to make work that creates a moment when it’s possible to notice such dynamics while also avoiding the “punchline” of an optical illusion – that is, to deny a moment of “getting it”. To feel this properly I must live in it for a bit.”

Jeffrey Dell was born in Santa Monica and grew up in both California and Oregon. He received a BA in Studio Art, with an emphasis in ceramics, from Hamline University in St. Paul MN. Subsequently, he moved into print, working as a non-degree graduate assistant at Bucknell University for two years, in Lewisberg, PA. He received an MFA in Printmaking at the University of New Mexico. Upon leaving NM, he was a Fellow for two years at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice, Italy. Since 2000 he has been teaching at Texas State University in San Marcos, where he remains a professor.

Jeffrey’s work is in the collection of The Blanton Museum of Art at UT Austin. He is represented by David Shelton Gallery in Houston, and previously by Art Palace Gallery and Galleri Urbane in Dallas. He has exhibited in Europe, South Korea, and extensively across the US. He was awarded a solo exhibition at The Print Center in Philadelphia, PA, for their 90th Annual International Competition.

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