September 10 – October 21, 2017
Curated by Troy Klyber
Dan Gamble, Cascade, 2011/2016. Oil on canvas, 72″ x 64″.
Portage is the act of carrying from one navigable passage to another, or a route through which this activity occurs. As human beings we navigate our own particular streams. But we are also social beings, compelled to reach out, to find and connect with fellow travelers. Some make creative works to serve as signposts and markers. Carrying these offerings, they leave their streams to converge and compare notes, to share what they have learned along the way.
Three artists – Dan Gamble, George Blaha, and Duncan Anderson – have made a portage, so to speak, to Riverside, which itself occupies an area proximate to the historical Chicago Portage. They come from parallel streams, bearing work rendered from disparate materials: sculpture, digital imaging, painting, drawing. Yet along the way they have followed common currents, finding inspiration and revelation in shared interests such as cosmology, mythology, physics, science fiction, history, and philosophy. Through their works, they seek to connect with fellow travelers and cultivate a sense of wonder in the phenomenal world, marking points along their exploration of this and other realms, real and imagined.
Duncan Robert Anderson, “valentine sevier in supplication to Nwt,” 2017. Gouache and colored pencil, 30″ x 26″.
George Blaha, “LM”, 2014, inkjet print mounted on dibond.