Joanne Dugan: Persistent Awakening

Black Box Projects is pleased to present Persistent Awakening, a solo exhibition by American visual artist, Joanne Dugan.  In her first solo exhibition in the United Kingdom, Dugan will present a series of unique cameraless photographic works that were inspired and created throughout her pandemic experience in New York City. Her newest works are a continuation of a practice deeply informed by meditative processes, this time also exploring the intersections between photography and painting. Pushing and pulling traditional analogue photo materials and processes, Dugan harnesses one of the oldest photographic techniques to record both traces of the hand and the interaction between light and material. Within the works of Persistent Awakening, Dugan's cameraless photographic practice has evolved into a painterly process with the inclusion of cyanotype into her normally monochrome palette. The artist's exciting new body of work found in Persistent Awakening is delightfully unexpected, evocative and visually satisfying in its abstracted forms.

Joanne Dugan's practice involves the experimental use of traditional analogue photographic materials and technology to explore photography as a three-dimensional, physical medium. Her unique works use intricate, repetitive hand-cutting techniques, chemical alterations, and vintage equipment to pay homage to the physical limitations and opportunities found in analogue methods, whilst also exploring the potential for creating works informed by mindfulness practices. Each piece is fully rendered by hand, slowly.

Utilising a slow and methodical approach to rendering a work, her mark-making is a purposeful response to her surrounding environment and the outside world. An introvert in her method, the artist works in solitary silence finding rhythm in the repetition and creative inspiration within the process. In many of her compositions, there is a visual disruption, a part of the image that stands out from the rest and breaks the pattern of repetitive forms. This represents the flash of insight that occurs through her meditative practice. In Buddhist practice this awakening is called Satori, or enlightenment.  

Joanne Dugan is a visual artist who lives and works in New York City.  Dugan's works have been exhibited in the United States, Germany, Amsterdam and Japan. They are part of numerous public and private collections and have been featured in The New York Times T Magazine and the Harvard Review. Dugan's limited edition artist books are included in the permanent library collections of The J. Paul Getty Museum, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The New York Public Library and The George Eastman House.  Joanne is a faculty member of the International Center of Photography in New York City and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA. 

Persistent Awakening will include over 20 never before-seen unique works, all pieces are available for sale with prices ranging from £ 2,000 - £ 10,000.

Black Box Projects

4 Cromwell Place, Gallery 3

London

SW7 2JE

Opening times:            

Tuesday - Saturday, 10 am - 6 pm

Sunday, 11 am - 4 pm

And by appointment

Please contact Anna Luk on info@blackboxprojects.art for further details, images and press materials.