DCA Fine Art is pleased to announce Icon, a two-person exhibition featuring the work of international artists Bogdan Dumitrica and Doro Hofmann. Icon debuts at DCA, Saturday, April 19, 2008 with an opening reception from 6pm-9pm, and continues through May 17, 2008. Exhibit hours are by appointment only.

 

Icon takes a fresh look at the pervasive culture of worship in contemporary life from both male and female perspectives. Representing the former, Dumitrica explores the theme in unexpected ways. His Cabezas series, for example, proffers two directions – first an investigation into the intense relationship between and animals and people and second, a witty, almost mocking discourse on the iconography of pop culture.

Bogdan Dumitrica, Get the Ball, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches

In his animal portraits, Dumitrica sets cats and dogs against conceptual backdrops of copper piping, a coiled garden hose, back alley graffiti, and a cascade of bright lemon-lime tennis balls. “I’m interested in the unconscious chemistry of attraction, rejections, fear, dominance, and power that is in play wherever humans and animals intersect,” remarks Dumitrica.

 

And then, Cabezas takes an even more intriguing turn. Dumitrica renders cultural icons as plastic action figures and juxtaposes them with astounding imagery to create dazzling and freakishly unique still lifes. Batman poses heroically against a mini trash heap of bathroom items; Pinocchio rests comfortably on a bed of glazed doughnuts, pills, and bullets; the great icons of the world’s religions float together in an atmosphere filled with animé cartoon characters and corporate emblems. “Expert craftsmanship meets absurdist comedy to create a pointed, irreverent body of work that only Dumitrica could have produced,” says gallery owner and Icon curator, Delia Cabral.

 

Bogdan Dumitrica, Lucha LIbre, oil on wood, 33 x 37 inches (double-sided)

If that weren’t enough, Dumitrica ups the ante even further with his Luchadores – those iconic, Mexican wrestlers festooned in colorful masks and, often, full body tattoos. Exploring the worship that “results from donning the mask”, Dumitrica’s take on luchadores features a double-sided execution. Each piece includes two completely different paintings and separate custom-made frames combined in a back-to-back format. One one side, the luchador’s masked, disembodied head challenges you to meet his gaze while on the other, you can surreptitiously scan his adorned, tatted-out backside.

 

Doro Hofmann’s Lost Icons examines the history of iconography through the prism of today’s commercial culture and cult of celebrity. Referencing sources that go back to the Byzantine era, Hofmann calls attention to the similarities between compositional strategies employed in classical religious worship to imagery drawn from our current celebrity-fueled society.

 

Doro Hofmann, Lost Icon #3, oil on canvas, 16 x 24 inches

 

“Throughout history, iconic structures have exploited our fundamental longing to connect with someone or something bigger than ourselves,” says Hofmann. It’s a form of seduction she recognizes in today’s icon-driven marketing of products, brands, athletes, politicians – just about everything. Says Cabral, “Hofmann portrays celebrities as the ‘holy figures’ of today who provide context and meaning for our lives even as they exist mainly to serve the impulses of our consumer culture.”

 

Hofmann appropriates pop-culture artifacts from the glittering, venal worlds of fashion, advertising, celebrity obsession, and television news and contrasts them with more sober imagery found in places like National Geographic or Time Magazine. She mixes these divergent stories to create collage-like oil paintings and cheeky installations that owe a particular nod to Dadaist Hannah Hoech, who, Hofmann says, “used cut-outs to create powerful and striking contrasts that opened people’s eyes and minds.

 

Critical of our fixation with glitz, glamour and “perfectly synthesized worlds,” Hofmann’s work often possess a grotesque element that reveals the repetitive, tedious nature of the overly idealized. Models are trapped in shimmering diamonds to cubist effect. Young blue-haired starlets pose, Madonna-esque, against an undulating digital-age cosmos. And elements such as migrating birds and lipstick serve to undercut the illusion of utopia.

 

 

Doro Hofmann, Adriana, oil on canvas, 60 x 42 inches

 

Hofmann’s work culminates with the satirical “Lipstick Chapel”. A playful shrine to the ubiquitous make-up accessory, this installation reflects our obsession with glamour and takes it to its logical, if absurd extreme. “It's lipstick as icon, lipstick as deity!” enthuses Cabral. “As a fresh, irreverent, and critical look at how and what we worship, this piece perfectly sums up the ideas and approach that inspired the Icon exhibit.”

Icon opens at DCA Fine Art in Santa Monica, California on Saturday April 19, 2008 and continues through May 17, 2008. The exhibition may also be viewed  by appointment.

Bogdan Dumitrica is a Romanian-born artist who has exhibited extensively in Southern California as well as his native country. Doro Hoffmann hails from Stuttgart, Germany where she studied under Franz Ackerman at the Staatliche Akademie. Her work has been shown in a variety of Los Angles venues as well as throughout Germany.

 

DCA Fine Art is pleased to announce Icon, a two-person exhibition featuring the work of international artists Bogdan Dumitrica and Doro Hofmann. Icon debuts at DCA, Saturday, April 19, 2008 with an opening reception from 6pm-9pm, and continues through May 17, 2008. Exhibit hours are by appointment only.

 

Icon takes a fresh look at the pervasive culture of worship in contemporary life from both male and female perspectives. Representing the former, Dumitrica explores the theme in unexpected ways. His Cabezas series, for example, proffers two directions – first an investigation into the intense relationship between and animals and people and second, a witty, almost mocking discourse on the iconography of pop culture.

Bogdan Dumitrica, Get the Ball, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches

In his animal portraits, Dumitrica sets cats and dogs against conceptual backdrops of copper piping, a coiled garden hose, back alley graffiti, and a cascade of bright lemon-lime tennis balls. “I’m interested in the unconscious chemistry of attraction, rejections, fear, dominance, and power that is in play wherever humans and animals intersect,” remarks Dumitrica.

 

And then, Cabezas takes an even more intriguing turn. Dumitrica renders cultural icons as plastic action figures and juxtaposes them with astounding imagery to create dazzling and freakishly unique still lifes. Batman poses heroically against a mini trash heap of bathroom items; Pinocchio rests comfortably on a bed of glazed doughnuts, pills, and bullets; the great icons of the world’s religions float together in an atmosphere filled with animé cartoon characters and corporate emblems. “Expert craftsmanship meets absurdist comedy to create a pointed, irreverent body of work that only Dumitrica could have produced,” says gallery owner and Icon curator, Delia Cabral.

 

Bogdan Dumitrica, Lucha LIbre, oil on wood, 33 x 37 inches (double-sided)

If that weren’t enough, Dumitrica ups the ante even further with his Luchadores – those iconic, Mexican wrestlers festooned in colorful masks and, often, full body tattoos. Exploring the worship that “results from donning the mask”, Dumitrica’s take on luchadores features a double-sided execution. Each piece includes two completely different paintings and separate custom-made frames combined in a back-to-back format. One one side, the luchador’s masked, disembodied head challenges you to meet his gaze while on the other, you can surreptitiously scan his adorned, tatted-out backside.

 

Doro Hofmann’s Lost Icons examines the history of iconography through the prism of today’s commercial culture and cult of celebrity. Referencing sources that go back to the Byzantine era, Hofmann calls attention to the similarities between compositional strategies employed in classical religious worship to imagery drawn from our current celebrity-fueled society.

 

Doro Hofmann, Lost Icon #3, oil on canvas, 16 x 24 inches

 

“Throughout history, iconic structures have exploited our fundamental longing to connect with someone or something bigger than ourselves,” says Hofmann. It’s a form of seduction she recognizes in today’s icon-driven marketing of products, brands, athletes, politicians – just about everything. Says Cabral, “Hofmann portrays celebrities as the ‘holy figures’ of today who provide context and meaning for our lives even as they exist mainly to serve the impulses of our consumer culture.”

 

Hofmann appropriates pop-culture artifacts from the glittering, venal worlds of fashion, advertising, celebrity obsession, and television news and contrasts them with more sober imagery found in places like National Geographic or Time Magazine. She mixes these divergent stories to create collage-like oil paintings and cheeky installations that owe a particular nod to Dadaist Hannah Hoech, who, Hofmann says, “used cut-outs to create powerful and striking contrasts that opened people’s eyes and minds.

 

Critical of our fixation with glitz, glamour and “perfectly synthesized worlds,” Hofmann’s work often possess a grotesque element that reveals the repetitive, tedious nature of the overly idealized. Models are trapped in shimmering diamonds to cubist effect. Young blue-haired starlets pose, Madonna-esque, against an undulating digital-age cosmos. And elements such as migrating birds and lipstick serve to undercut the illusion of utopia.

 

 

Doro Hofmann, Adriana, oil on canvas, 60 x 42 inches

 

Hofmann’s work culminates with the satirical “Lipstick Chapel”. A playful shrine to the ubiquitous make-up accessory, this installation reflects our obsession with glamour and takes it to its logical, if absurd extreme. “It's lipstick as icon, lipstick as deity!” enthuses Cabral. “As a fresh, irreverent, and critical look at how and what we worship, this piece perfectly sums up the ideas and approach that inspired the Icon exhibit.”

Icon opens at DCA Fine Art in Santa Monica, California on Saturday April 19, 2008 and continues through May 17, 2008. The exhibition may also be viewed  by appointment.

Bogdan Dumitrica is a Romanian-born artist who has exhibited extensively in Southern California as well as his native country. Doro Hoffmann hails from Stuttgart, Germany where she studied under Franz Ackerman at the Staatliche Akademie. Her work has been shown in a variety of Los Angles venues as well as throughout Germany.