Thomas Robertello Gallery is pleased to present Charlatan: a solo exhibition by Austin, Texas based artist Jonathan Dankenbring. Charlatan opens Friday January 27 at 6:00PM and continues through March 10, 2012. This is Dankenbring's first exhibition with the gallery.
Using disparate forms, imagery, and media, Dankenbring explores iconography through the lens of personal history and highly speculative reformations, focusing on how our current culture may be perceived by future peoples. Through drawing, sculpture, and photography, resulting works range in development from artifact to hybrid structures, relying heavily on a minimalist design aesthetic. Tied directly to hyper-consumerism, evangelical ideals, humor, and fear, the artist hovers -- literally with a self-portrait -- in alien-like observation. By imitating, recording, and abstracting objects that reflect ideological information about their maker and audience, Dankenbring exposes the vulnerabilities inherent in our most cherished modern artifacts.

The Viewing Station drawings consider the repurposed use of stadium structures as apocalyptic seating venues for the paranoid and faithful, sitting quietly awaiting input from above. In the work Or.ganic, the austere surfaces of a television are channeled, allowing for contemplation of the vast levels of propaganda broadcast through the iconic form. The artist's Resurrection Machine operates as a sidelined prototype from a bygone era, sleekly linking an ancient past's sacrificial table with an autopsy table and ridiculing the recent technology /mortality conundrum. Multiple smaller sculptures fetishize contemporary media and communication technology subverting recognizable forms: iPods, Sony Walkman, iPhones.

Jonathan Dankenbring (b.1981) lives in Austin,TX. He is a graduate of Indiana University's MFA program in Sculpture (2009) and Kansas City Art Institute in Painting (2004). This is his first exhibition in Chicago.

Thomas Robertello Gallery
27 N Morgan St
Chicago, IL 60607
812.345.1886

GALLERY HOURS: Wednesday through Saturday 12-6

For further information please visit:

http://www.thomasrobertello.com/exhibition/view/2045

or

www.jdankenbring.com

Opening Reception:
THURSDAY, October 13, 6-8pm
MKG Art Management
2825 Colquitt, Houston, TX 77098
713.526.4146

MKG Art Management celebrates its 13th year as Houstons' premier Art Advisory with an exhibition aptly named Lucky Thirteen.

* Work to be included in this exhibition: past tense (artifact), The World, and Matryoshka

-ment
has been selected for the upcoming show "The Body Departed" at the MCC-Longview Cultural Center in Lee's Summit, Missouri. October 21 - Nov 21, 2009. The opening will take place Friday October 23rd from 5 - 7:30PM.

5 new pieces will be shown at Exhibitions 2d in Marfa, TX opening the weekend of Oct. 9-11. Just in time for Chinati Weekend 2009... I will be in town Oct10th and 11th.
New pieces include:

p(ersonal)ublic
envi.
common interest (2)
kines

Interpreting the Square will be on display throughout the month of September in the atrium of City Hall (in the main entrance of the Showers Building, 401 N. Morton St. Bloomington, IN). The exhibition will be open for viewing from Sept. 4 through Sept. 30, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

for more information go to:

http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/11587.html

Four works have been selected for entry into the show Introductions 5 at Irvine Contemporary in Washington DC. Works to be included are as follows:

past tense (heavy)
past tense (artifact)
Preference I
ultra

... I will be attending the opening on Saturday August 8 at 6:30 - 9PM (artist discussion from 5-6PM).

www.irvinecontemporary.com