“The dog came out of the woods” is a simple statement. When that sentence is followed by, “The man left the door open”, the possibility of a narrative has begun. —John Berger

StoneFox ArtSpace’s upcoming exhibition, “The Dog Came Out of the Woods” explores narrative possibility in the work of six emerging artists. Linked by an interest in open ended or layered narratives, these artists employ various strategies that simultaneously engage and undermine conventional visual storytelling.

George Boorujy, a Brooklyn based artist, creates detailed color ink drawings of animals and landscapes that are derived from both real life and fantasy. A cross between zoological illustration and sci-fi fantasy, Boorujy’s large-scale drawings explore the collision between civilization and nature. Phoenix artist Jon Haddock conflates comic book characters with historical and current events, as well as experiences from the artist’s own life in his series My Life In Comics. In an ironic twist, Haddock appropriates the fantasy comic book scenario in these small-scale paintings in order to humanize real life narratives. Avish Khebrehzadeh is an Iranian born artist, now living in Washington DC and Rome. Layering video projection and drawing, A Swim/Family with Dog, presents a figure removing his robe and entering the water for a swim projected onto a large-scale graphite drawing of a family with a dog. The distinct vignettes, poetically capturing moments in time, play off one another and allude to a larger narrative of personal memory and shared experience.

Reuben Negron’s intimate portrait series Dirty Dirty Love: The Embrace documents a married couple and the balance between daily routine and intimacy. Juxtaposing a fully rendered scene of the pair in their domestic environment with isolated images of lovemaking, Negron focuses attention on the interaction between the models. The narrative is simultaneously intensely personal and universally familiar. Edward del Rosario explores social conventions in his drawings of characters that dwell in a space between childhood and adulthood. As if on a stage for a production, the figures relay an oblique narrative through body language and props such as costumes, whips, and bats. Charmaine Wheatley, a Canadian artist now based in Brooklyn, creates spontaneous ink and watercolor sketches that present intimate portraits of people she encounters day-to-day, friends and strangers, alike. The drawings are riddled with comments about the subject, impulsively recorded to-do lists or the artist’s own diaristic musings on her personal life. Wheatley assembles 10-20 drawings into reclaimed AOL promo CD-cases, each box representing a chapter of time.

About the Curator

Kelly Lindner is currently director of George Adams Gallery, New York. Prior to moving to New York in 2000, she was director/founder of The Living Room, an alternative art space in San Francisco committed to emerging artists. She is a graduate of the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College.