Dean Goelz: Migrations September 12, 2008

Dean Goelz: Migrations
September 12th – October 12th, 2008
Opening Reception: Friday September 12th 6-10pm
Artist’s Dinner: September 19th 8pm - reservations required

Like the Spice is pleased to present Dean Goelz: Migrations featuring the artist's socially astute drawings and sculptures. The works depict the slightly odd ways we interact with each other and our environment and the tenuous grip society and culture have on our gentle animal natures. Using a kind of reverse anthropomorphism, the characters depicted in the show evoke protective instincts usually reserved for cute animals and babies.
Lifelike, the sculptures of humanoid and human-hybrid forms embody the awkward everyman, They form herds, do their best to get along and end up as slightly creepy, slightly funny, complex characters that evoke our sympathy and compassion. Cosmic underdogs and nerds, Goelz's human/duck hybrids in particular are both disturbing and familiar. When placed alongside the other sculptures in the exhibition, including a self-portrait bust frosted like a birthday cake and a large man protruding from the mouth of a monster costume, the effect is to call attention to the razor's edge between instinct, personality, and society.
Goelz's sensitive, lyrical and detailed drawings also evoke human desires, struggles and foibles. Composed of innumerable precise and minute marks, Goelz's drawings bring attention to the infinite microcosm within each individual. Depicting a single figure or couple against a stark white background, each drawing depicts a moment of decision, reflection, or anxiety. In one self-portrait, the artist offers his liver to a cardinal, a willing modern day Prometheus. Sometimes standing on a tiny patch of grass, the figures in each drawing seem to be simultaneously alienated form their environment and on the brink of being devoured by it.
Dean Goelz graduated from The Maryland Institute College of Art in 2001 where he earned his Bachelor in Fine Arts degree. He works as a freelance artist doing design work and commissioned sculptures while operating a successful mural and faux finishing business. His work has shown nationally and internationally and is included in private collections in the US, France, and the Czech Republic. He lives and works in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. A veteran of several group shows, this will be Dean Goelz’s first solo show at Like the Spice.

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