Opening Reception: Friday, July 18th, 2014, 6-8pm
Exhibition runs through August 16th, 2014.
Art Palace is happy to announce Summer Salts, a group show including Justin Boyd, Elaine Bradford, Jeffrey Dell, Peat Duggins, Nathan Green, Tatiana Istomina, Bradley Kerl, Joe Joe Orangias, Linda Post, Raychael Stine, Barry Stone, & Eric Zimmerman.
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June 28th – August 10, 2013
Reception: June 28th, 2013, 6 – 8pm
A group exhibition by Miguel Aragón, The Bridge Club, Melanie Crader, Jeffrey Dell, Peat Duggins, Nathan Green, Charlie Morris, Jim Nolan, Linda Post, Barry Stone, & Eric Zimmerman.
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In the Project Room:
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June 28th – August 10, 2013
Nov 3, 2012 through Jan 5, 2013
At the end of John Ford’s film, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, the character played by Vera Miles looks out a train window at the now-tamed American west and says to the film’s hero, played by Jimmy Stewart, “Look at it. It was once a wilderness, now it’s a garden. Aren’t you proud?”
Gardens occupy a space in between the built, domesticated world and the natural world. It is neither and both at the same time; a space in which nature is tamed and ordered for the intention of viewing. Petals and lush greenery are cultivated in a garden, decay and violence are not. Morphologically, a lady bug and a cockroach are nearly identical but the former is held to be auspicious and the latter repulsive. Romantic artists of the 18th and 19th centuries connected nature to the sublime, even the spiritual. Peat Duggings questions the way that nature is reduced to a fetish in his forth solo exhibition at Art Palace: Wreaths.
Wreaths explore the unique synergy of translating objects into drawings on a one-to-one scale. Duggins removes the external reference points so that the images of nature are understood outside of the context of art history, allegory, and narrative. Reduced to texture and pattern without symbolic meaning, the work in Wreaths becomes a sum of forces: patterns of embodied energy aimed at reclaiming the potent mystery of nature stripped away by aestheticization.
September 10 – October 23, 2010
In 723, Germany’s patron saint, St. Boniface chopped down Donar’s Oak while taunting the gods of the dumbstruck Germanic tribesmen who held the tree sacred. Afterwards, he used the lumber to build the chapel, which served as the home base for his missionary outreach. St. Boniface’s felling of Donar’s Oak can be seen as a symbol that heralded a new relationship between Europeans and their environment, with a new concept of time and history.
From meditations on illogic, violence, natural and synthetic beauty, this exhibition reaches back in time to further explore Peat Duggins’ focus on man’s relationship with nature. Originating with the idea of chopping down a chapel and using the wood to build an oak tree, St. Boniface’s Last Days presents a thoughtful reversal of history. As in previous exhibitions, Duggins’ mastery of materials is evident as he presents a bold new direction in his work.
About the Artist:
After studying Film/Video at the Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University, Peat Duggins moved to Austin, Texas, where he co-founded the non-profit contemporary art gallery, the Fresh Up Club, and later the celebrated no-profit gallery & collective, Okay Mountain. Duggins’ work has been exhibited internationally and collected by both The Blanton Museum of Art and Austin Museum of Art. Other distinctions include a fellowship from the Pritzker Foundation, and numerous residencies including the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art and the Corporation of Yaddo, as well as a grant from of the Dallas Museum of Art. He currently lives and works as a practicing artist in Cambridge, MA.
October 18 – November 15, 2008
Starting with the hypothesis that the western frontier—largely untouched or else having been built fast and furiously—is relatively free from history’s yoke, Peat Duggins presents the West as clean data for a cultural litmus test reflecting our values now. He develops Hickory Ridge, a fictitious community that has been the focus of his work for the past five years, to explore the personal and social identity of 21st century America.
Black Room provides the back-story of Hickory Ridge. The work in the show is a meditation on history itself, specifically the ebb and flow of human progress as set against the perennial, natural world. Duggins has transformed the gallery into a civic space that references both historical architecture and elements of our everyday environment. The most dominant element of the exhibition are eight woven tapestries that correspond to compass directions traditionally associated with the seasons and times of the day. Seen in the round they form a complete cycle of human/nature progression.
About the Artist:
Peat Duggins moved to Austin after studying at Rhode Island School of Design & Brown University. He currently lives and works in Austin as a practicing artist. Since his last solo exhibition at Art Palace in 2006 he has presented his work as part of “2 to Watch” at Artpace, San Antonio. He was also selected for several residency programs including Bemis Artist Residency Program in Omaha, Nebraska and The MacDowell Colony in New Haven, Connecticut. His works has been included in exhibitions at Road Agent Gallery, Texas State University, Austin Museum of Art and The Texas Biennial.
April 22 -May 31, 2006
Art Palace presents The Moment That Changed My Life Forever, a new installation by Peat Duggins that revisits Hickory Ridge, the fantasy community from the 2004 Fresh Up Club exhibition The Battle of Hickory Ridge. The Moment That Changed My Life Forever is a prequel to the 2004 piece that investigated the history and politics of Hickory Ridge. For the show at Art Palace, Duggins populates Hickory Ridge to explore its personal and spiritual aspects. Moment looks at the feedback loop created when tragedy is succeeded by reactionary politics, which in turn yield further misfortune.
About the Artist:
Peat Duggins moved to Austin after receiving his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design’s Film and Animation department in 2000. He is a practicing artist as well as a freelance illustrator and animator. In 2004-05 he worked on Linklater’s upcoming film, A Scanner Darkly. In 2002 he co-founded The Fresh Up Club, co-directing it with Dave Bryant for two years. Duggin’s work has been in several group exhibitions including the Austin Museum of Art’s 2005 22 To Watch and the Texas Biennial in 2005. That same year he received The Austin Critic’s Table Award for his solo exhibition, The Battle of Hickory Ridge. His work has been featured in several publications including Artl!ies and Glasstire. This year Duggins will serve as editor for his upcoming publication, Okay Mountain. He has recently been accepted to the prestigious Bemis Artist Residency in Omaha, Nebraska.
