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In
these intervening years
Dogmatic has established a
bold exception to exhibition
and curatorial practice. Through
the persistence of its partnership
with artists and their resolve
we have continued to inform
the ways in which institutions
look at emerging and early
career artists and the work
that they present. When you
attend a Stray Show, Miami/Basel
or see a program such as Twelve
by Twelve at the MCA in Chicago
you are experiencing the lasting
impact that this resolve has
had. Dogmatic has provided
this along with a capacity
for leadership necessary to
help spawn a new generation
of spaces that will confront
the future with an unrelenting
cheeriness.
Despite
these accomplishments Dogmatic
is at the end of an era. Artist’s
needs are changing. The dialogue
that once served them and
provided the backbone for
spaces devoted to project-based
work has dwindled as its community
has grown. The bleak time
where continued investigations
are met without hope of support
or compensation for their
efforts is at hand. Now DIY
is being replaced with grab
what you can and the new millennium
is showing us how quickly
words like community and dialogue
can be made passé as
altruism falls into the same
space as plagiarism. In short
Dogmatic has come full circle.
With
the tools of leadership and
experience at our disposal
however, Dogmatic looks forward
to meeting the realities of
these times head on. The space
as it has existed at 1822
S. Desplaines will forego
the comforts of its home for
a more transient and versatile
approach to curatorial conundrums
and project based work over
the course of its next eight
projects. By doing this we
look forward to offering new
challenges to a new group
of artists both locally and
those not so lucky to be from
Chicago. The Artists that
have made Dogmatic their home
in prior years will continue
to do so as we push even further
the notions of the gallery
space as place, art as ephemera
and kitsch as a site specific
intervention for the contemporary
framework.
Dogmatic
maintains and upholds its
belief that art is not something
accessible only to the few.
It is instead a potential
for all people everywhere
to engage the notion of sensation
and challenge the experience
of history with anything they
choose to make a tool of in
any space they so choose.
Dogmatic in short, will continue
to provide leadership for
these endeavors as more and
more duck, duck, goose becomes
a reasonable way to ring around
the rosy. We will continue
providing Art in any way possible
to a world of grown ups that
realize the importance of
such experiences and we will
do this from Chicago where
Art happens in real time daily.
Michael
S. Thomas, Director
Dogmatic
Dogmatic
began in 1997. Founders Paul
Chan, Aviv Kruglanski, Andrew
Natale, and Michael Thomas
were committed to civil and
artistic actions that could
draw attention to the growing
rifts within their community.
Politics, big business, institutions
and their relationships to
the citizenry at large provided
easy targets. The gallery
became a tool to exploit these
targets. The goals of our
gallery were met in part by
attempting to break down the
existing models for art presentation
in the traditional modern
white box. The modern box
was replaced by the house
we lived in while shows became
thematic in an attempt to
purge the gallery of white
space by covering every inch
with artwork.
1822
S.Desplaines
In doing so we created
a personal space in which
a new mercurial art could
be seen without the cloying
persistence of old dogmas
and old moneys. What we provided
was a place in which artists
could be seen and talked with
without the pressure to relent
to a market place that was
turning its back on them.
I no longer have the luxury
of working daily with Paul,
Andrew and Aviv but my mission
is still short and simple.
Chicago
I present to the public
the best artwork that can
be seen at any given time.
My shows are meant to incite
dialogue and to this end the
thematic nature of shows has
been reduced, while greater
care is taken to curate shows
that expound on single artists
and small groups. It is my
hope to provide the public
an opportunity to see the
progression of an Artists
work and ideas before established
institutions get the opportunity
to edit them. In simplest
light Im committed to giving
everyone I can the chance
to say Im wrong, and an affordable
space within which they can
prove it.
--Michael
Thomas
Director
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