Dana Blume
Dream Cast

March 13th - April 4th

Roq La Rue is pleased to present a solo show by NW painter Dana Blume. A rapidly rising star in the NW art scene- Blume’s work is a refreshing take on modern painting- riotous tableaus of hazy amorphous shapes and monster-y characters in a loose, rounded style and distinctive palette. Inspired by the assorted explorations of adolescence - the work explores theme of earnest bumblings through the passage of adulthood- burgeoning sexuality, destructive hijinks, confusing emotions, put down with a sense of humor and compassion. Works start as scribbled drawings meant to capture and emotion or feeling- then transcribed into vibrant layers of paint, built up to contain a sense of fluid gravity and shimmering rotundness.

Dana Blume has a M.F.A. from The University of Washington and serves as an adjunct instructor for drawing and painting there. He has exhibited in Washington, California, Singapore, England, and Italy.

My paintings and drawings orbit around a shifting cast of surreal creatures, apparitions, and personifications engaged in morally ambiguous hijinks. These characters contain multitudes: sometimes they appear benevolent, other times they are engaged in destruction. Some of these characters and motifs do represent, or at least resemble, aspects of myself or others, but I do not consider my work to be biographical. That said, the absurd escapades these characters find themselves in are inevitably inspired by personal or universal human pitfalls that I want to analyze and interpret through painting.

The work in Dream Cast utilizes the compositional structures of history painting as visual starting points for automatic drawings that become paintings. I have always been fascinated by the phenomenon of paradeolia: the human ability to see images and patterns in abstract phenomenon like clouds, tree bark, burnt toast… The complexity of history paintings lends itself to a breakdown of figuration, where large arrangements of figures turn into an abstract structure that I relate to clouds or piles. I like the idea of utilizing the visual complexity of something aimed at delivering tales of morality and heroism to produce non sense, to deliver no moral conclusions at all. There is something deeply optimistic to me about transforming a heroic image into something sluggish and distinctly unheroic. While there is obvious sarcasm about the western art-historical cannon present in my interpretations of these paintings, they are sincere excuses to observe and admire these works for their dedication to painting as a form. - Dana Blume

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