David Cabrera Selects: Dawit Petros Bruce Yonemoto Selects: Bryan Jackson

Alexander Gray Associates is pleased to inaugurate our Introductions program. With Introductions, we draw on the vision and influence of our mid-career gallery artists; Gallery artists select emerging artists for an exhibition, exposing our audiences to new artists. In this way, we hope to reinforce the direct impact of our associated artists on intergenerational dialogues and artistic exchanges.

Gallery artist David Cabrera has selected Dawit L. Petros to exh ibit his media-based work. Petros’ exhibition includes photography, video, and a site-specific installation. With landscape as a primary subject and metaphor, Petros explores ideas of the post-Colonial, cultural transformation and location. Each work in the show draws from specific histories, sources and sites, including locations in Northern Canada, the “American West”, and Africa. The enfolding of these locations, complete with restaging elements, documentation, and performative gesture, is the result of Petros’ disciplined approach to exploring codes, signals, and language that construct identity and the collective consciousness.

Dawit L. Petros was born in Asmara, Eritrea, and received his MFA in 2007 from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He has exhibited his work in group shows throughout Canada and in the U.S., including Wedge Gallery, Toronto; Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; Photographic Resource Center, Boston, Bagg Gallery, Boston; Harbourfro nt Gallery, Toronto; Observeatoire, Montreal; Maison de la Culture Frontenac, Montréal; and Prefix Gallery, Toronto. He has received Fulbright and Bombardier Internationalist fellowships.

Gallery artist Bruce Yonemoto selected Bryan Jackson, a filmmaker, theater director and artist whose work have been celebrated on the Gay and Lesbian Film circuit. Jackson’s film, Softly, a highly stylized short film that traces desire, sensuality and romance is the centerpiece of his exhibition. In this film, Bratz dolls have been employed as actors in a romantic narrative between two men. By staging them in miniature, exquisitely handcrafted sets, the line between dollhouse and reality becomes blurred—creating a world as fragile and ephemeral as the romance story that takes place within the frame. On exhibit are two of the sets, presented as sculptures, and still photographs from the film. Making reference to Todd Haynes’ landmark 1987 film Superstar: The Karen Carpente r Story, and Douglas Sirk films of the 1950s, Softly embraces sentimentality and humor, queer iconography and fetish.

Bryan Jackson, born in 1967 in Emporia, Kansas, holds an MFA from UCLA. His films have been screened in festivals internationally, including CineKink, New York City (Haircut, winner, Best Experimental Short Film, 2004); NewFest, the New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Film Festival (2007, 2005, 2004); and the gay and lesbian film festivals of Lisbon, Jakarta, New Zealand, London, Sydney, Amsterdam, Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Munich, Chicago, Seattle, Bremen, Fresno, Indianapolis, Austin, Barcelona, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Long Island, and Atlanta. Jackson lives and works in Los Angeles, and is on faculty at UC Irvine.