Drew Dodge
Earth Song

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    Is it sensuality or agony? Is it seductiveness or dread? Is it life or death? Perhaps things do not necessarily have to be in a state of “either/or,” and do not have to be in harmony, but embedded in a heterogenous apparatus of push and pull—existing at the same time, in the same painting.

    Drew Dodge’s paintings are synergetic systems, colossal monuments that house both life and death. The different motifs that build his paintings are suffused with an explicit symbolism while simultaneously existing as alluring enigmas. And yet, the divergent symbols synchronize, conglomerating into one image whose coherence has distinctness as an underlying ground.


    • Drew Dodge
    • Earth Song , 2024
    • Oil on canvas
      • 244 ×
      • 183 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 96 ×
      • 72 ×
      •  inches
      •  unframed
      • 247 ×
      • 186 ×
      • 5 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 97 1/4 ×
      • 73 1/4 ×
      • 1 15/16 ×
      •  in
      •  framed

    • Drew Dodge
    • Thread of life , 2024
    • Oil on canvas
      • 183 ×
      • 183 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 72 ×
      • 72 ×
      •  inches
      •  unframed
      • 186 ×
      • 186 ×
      • 5 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 73 1/4 ×
      • 73 1/4 ×
      • 1 15/16 ×
      •  in
      •  framed


    Many of Dodge’s motifs have been utilized throughout art history and are charged with meaning that he carries on while simultaneously recontextualizing it. For example, the image of the bull that has been historically used as a symbol of power and stereotypical masculinity (which has turned out to be a rather fragile, disintegrating concept) is reinterpreted by the artist through a queer lens, subverting patriarchal notions by employing an empathic and sensitive perspective. He thereby disrupts and questions societal structural issues without being overtly political; and without any systemic critique becoming too blatant. Recurring ribbons and ropes—opposing forces that are filaments of life or constraining forces—likewise reference subversive notions of power.

    • Drew Dodge
    • Live to Tell , 2024
    • Oil on canvas
      • 198 ×
      • 122 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 78 ×
      • 48 ×
      •  inches
      • 201 ×
      • 125 ×
      • 5 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 79 1/8 ×
      • 49 3/16 ×
      • 1 15/16 ×
      •  inches
      •  unframed
         cm
      /
         in
      •  framed
    • Drew Dodge
    • Anchor , 2024
    • Oil on canvas
      • 198 ×
      • 122 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 78 ×
      • 48 ×
      •  inches
      • 201 ×
      • 125 ×
      • 5 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 79 1/8 ×
      • 49 3/16 ×
      • 1 15/16 ×
      •  in
      •  framed


    • Drew Dodge
    • Heart and Soul , 2024
    • Oil on canvas
      • 198 ×
      • 122 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 78 ×
      • 48 ×
      •  inches
      • 201 ×
      • 125 ×
      • 5 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 79 1/8 ×
      • 49 3/16 ×
      • 1 15/16 ×
      •  in
      •  framed


    Dodge’s use of such enigmatic figures and symbols stem from a desire to uncover the world while letting it remain distant and opaque, somewhat milky, until it becomes accessible. His motifs are flirting with each other, echoing each other, until they become one—sexy and strange, taunting and bewitching, tumultuous and tranquil.

    — Claire Koron Elat

    • Drew Dodge
    • Oar , 2024
    • Oil on canvas
      • 198 ×
      • 122 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 78 ×
      • 48 ×
      •  inches
      • 201 ×
      • 125 ×
      • 5 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 79 1/8 ×
      • 49 3/16 ×
      • 1 15/16 ×
      •  in
      •  framed

    In Drew Dodge’s paintings, part human part canine figures often take part in suggestive activities, bathed in moonlight, in desert landscapes or perhaps in the setting of a ranch. An impression of tenderness and a peculiar eroticism emerge from the physical relationships between beings and objects. By softening the bristly texture of his colorful creatures, Dodge summons a balance between chaos, ecstasy, pleasure and pain. His masterful works bring together three artistic traditions: Religious painting from the European Renaissance and its powerfully structured pictorial spaces and intertwining bodies; American desert mysticism and its powerful symbolism; the cartoon, with its strange and seductive mix of animal and human characters.
     
    Drew Dodge (b. 2001, Monterey, California, USA) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He recently graduated as a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Art and Design in Providence. His already acclaimed work has featured in several exhibitions in the USA and Europe.