MOBERG GALLERY

Des Moines, IA / August 19 - September 30, 2023

This exhibit might draw a line, but it’s fine, and it finds the audience, hopefully, happily on edge with the art included. It is a feast for the eyes and mind—filled with abundant and wondrous works that will invite you to home in and expand. Join us to celebrate this Wild (Mid)West show, which includes artists from all over the globe: Andrew Abbott, Georgi Andonov, Patrick Duegaw, William Downs, Electric Coffin, Thomas C. Jackson, Mary Jones, Larassa Kabel, Alexandre Shiffer, Bart Vargas, and Aaron Wilson & Tim Dooley.

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On the subject of therianthropes, the works by Patrick Duegaw are fantastical and fascinating. His statement is important to delving into the new lithograph series: “The Trials of the Golden Rat, a series of 13 lithographic editions, were derived from a child’s drawing game, Five Lines, and the epic poem The Twelve Labours of Hercules. The project is part cloud-busting, part Rorschach test, where five random marks are made on a blank page, and from these emerge[d] mythical animal-human hybrids enacting a poignant tale of ignorance, manipulation and control, intolerance, hubris, greed; and, conversely, of justice and acceptance. The original five lines in all the lithographs are printed in red, revealing the process; a common component in Duegaw’s work.

And Ksenya Gurshtein, in Updating the Myth of Hercules for the #MeToo Era (Hyperallageric, January 25, 2021), elucidates further for us: “Where is Hercules in all this? In Duegaw’s exhibition, he becomes the anti-hero: the Golden Rat with small hands — a subtle but legible allusion to Trump, who himself derided opponents using animal comparisons. Duegaw rightsizes Trump to a historical footnote surrounded by more notable characters, while the labors, including “nasty women” like Daniels, become the phenomena that shape the contemporary cultural landscape.”

EXHIBITION IMAGES AND FULL ARTICLE

Image courtesy of Moberg Gallery, text by Michaela Mullin