Joshua Dildine

Mark Moore Gallery proudly presents Joshua Dildine’s inaugural showing in the main exhibition space. At the intersection of abstraction and photography, Dildine uses seemingly mundane imagery from family photography as a backdrop to his painterly gestures and forms. With the original subjects of the photographs obfuscated by these otherworldly gestures, his work interrogates the relationship between projected nostalgia and the mechanics of memory.

A fixation shared by society at large, the contemplation of past events and relationships ultimately shapes our psychology moving forward – as a flicker of fond reminiscence, ardent shame, or jovial glee can be activated by a single sensory cue. With a purposeful cognizance, Dildine mines these runes for the underlying traits that forge our shared humanity: the humor found in the compromising, the endearment found in the aggravating, or the conflict found in the absent. Like vibrant lens flares or chemical emulsions, varying textures of acrylic, oil, and spray paints transform Dildine’s personal snapshots from the past into new striking compositions. While photos slowly fade, or become lost in a digital void, memories often transmute over time. Dildine’s work employs the ubiquitous aesthetic of twentieth century amateur home photography in contrast with his vigorous applications of bold color palettes and textures. At times, these marks evoke a ghostly presence in the canvas, while other works allude to a visceral outburst. Despite a permeating cultural obsession with the manipulation of digital photography – both in terms of constructed identity and edited reflections of the past – Dildine’s creations feel refreshingly organic, as their composition develops in reaction to the sentiment of the picture. While implying the absurdity of our incessant self-analysis and contemplation of the past, Dildine creates experiences that are at once present and bygone through a purposefully disjointed lens.

Joshua Dildine (b. 1984, CA), received his MFA from Claremont Graduate University (CA). He has been featured in solo and group exhibitions in Claremont, Culver City, Santa Ana, Berkeley, Oakland, Los Angeles, San Diego, Nashville, and Murfreesboro, as well as the Frederick Weisman Museum of Fine Art (CA). He was also the recipient of the 2010 Claremont Graduate University Award, and has work in the UC Riverside public collection. The artist lives and works in Claremont, CA.