Gabriel Dawe

Out of the Dark

Talley Dunn Gallery
March 23 – April 27, 2024

Gabriel Dawe, Out of the Dark, 2024, Installation View, Talley Dunn Gallery

Talley Dunn Gallery is delighted to present Out of the Dark, a solo exhibition of internationally acclaimed Mexico City born artist Gabriel Dawe featuring the debut of intimate and larger scale watercolors and mesmerizing textile collages. This exhibition is a profound exploration of resilience and transformation as Dawe unveils a body of work born from the depths of personal struggle and triumph. Motivated by a longing to overcome the challenges that weighed heavily on him during the latter half of 2022, Dawe sought to reconnect with a spirit of play that had eluded him. Throughout 2023, the artist adopted a daily ritual practice of watercolor, reminiscent of Dawe’s earliest days as an artist. This everyday meditation in the fluid intuitive freedom of watercolor and the diaphanous nature of its color was a beacon of light that guided Dawe towards mental, physical, and spiritual restoration. Out of the Dark celebrates the power of creativity to illuminate even the darkest of paths and emerge into the light renewed and revitalized.

In contrast to the precision of Dawe’s previous series, the resulting works from these nightly watercolor sessions gave birth to a newfound sense of freedom. Out of the Dark exhibits a full year’s worth of these painterly meditations, done on book pages, in an incredible grid on the gallery wall. Inspired by the spontaneous beauty of these watercolors, Dawe ventured into larger formats as well as into the realm of textile collages. Of note in the exhibition are two periods of his daily meditations, each bearing the imprint of transformative experiences. The first, created amidst the stark beauty of the High Arctic during the artist’s Arctic Circle Artist Residency, reflects the awe-inspiring landscapes and fields of blue of Dawe’s creative stay. Many of these works were even made with glacier ice water. The second notable section, produced in complete absence of light during a seven-day darkness retreat outside Kansas City, captures an unfettered energy of spontaneity in the artist’s loose gestural brushwork. Through Dawe’s watercolors and textile works, the artist invites viewers to embark on their own journey of regeneration and introspection. Out of the Dark shines a light on the transformative potency of creativity, guiding us through the shadows to emerge renewed and invigorated in the radiant glow of self-discovery.

Born and raised in Mexico City, Dawe has created a practice informed both by his childhood fascination with needlework as well as his frustration with the restrictive gender norms that forbade him access to it as a young boy. Challenging the traditional categorization of textiles within domestic craft, the artist’s work weaves together reflections on gender, fashion, and architecture.

Dawe’s large-scale installations emulate the optical phenomena of refracted light, captivating viewers by inviting them into an ethereal and celestial experience within the bounds of the venerable walls and ceilings of art institutions. Dawe explains his intent is to “materialize light, to give it density, so that I can offer the viewer an approximation of things otherwise inaccessible to us—a glimmer of hope that brings us closer to the transcendent.”

Dawe received an MFA from the University of Texas at Dallas. In 2020 Dawe received the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant, and the Texas State 3D Visual Artist Award. His work has been exhibited at institutions such as the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Courtauld Institute, London, U.K.; the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, Mexico; Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, DC; and Museum Rijswijk, the Netherlands. Dawe has had solo exhibitions at the Toledo Museum of Art, OH; Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX;  The National Centre for Craft and Design, Lincolnshire, UK; Newark Museum, NJ; Brighman Young University Museum of Art, Provo, UT; Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum, San Antonio, TX; and The Luminary Arts Center, St. Louis, MO to name a few. Dawe’s work has been collected by the Amarillo Museum of Art, TX; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Long Beach Performance Art Center, CA; Newark Museum, NJ; SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA; University of Texas at Dallas and the U.S. State Department.