Primary is proud to present Days Before Remembering, an exhibition of new mixed-media paintings by the Atlanta-based artist Dustin Emory. This selection of work marks Emory's first solo with the gallery, a strange and wonderful look into that which is confinement.
When an instance of isolation sets in, it affects how we relate to the world. Should there be an immediate response to the overwhelming feeling of being trapped? Or embrace the situation with the intention to zero in and explore beyond our primary restraints? There is power in narrowing one's visual field; it depends on how we perceive it.
Executing his work within a strict black-and-white color palette, Emory straddles the line between analog and digital, exploring how limitations can create a boundless arena.
The paintings become a meditation, loose documentation in conversation with the visual language of the digital age.
Dustin Emory recognizes constraint, a concept made clear to him coming of age. The global isolation that made up the 2020 pandemic accelerated his interests—always in negotiation with the perception that is his father's incarceration, Emory, as a spectator, is making sense of the performative yet divisive nature that is the clink. In many cases, the restriction does produce results.
A freeze frame. Captured using unconventional angles and eccentric lighting sources, Emory adopts the formal and stylistic devices of surrealist film and photography. He focuses on the more provocative details, opening up to the viewer to approach his work as one might approach a poem.
Opens
Saturday, January 28, 2023
5 PM
About the Artist:
Dustin Emory (b. 1999, Atlanta, Georgia) is a self taught visual artist with a practice primarily consisting of painting. His work largely explores the human response to confinement through a black and white lens. He has exhibited nationally and internationally with group shows in New York and Paris, as well as a recent solo exhibition in London.
Primary. (Est. in 2007) is a context & research-driven curatorial collective with a focus on public arts. Located in Little River, Miami, our private residence explores modern ideas on the subject of live/work, connecting new voices in contemporary art with growing audiences & collections.
