MAY 3 – JUNE 7, 2023

Opening Reception with the Artist
Wednesday, May 3, 5:30–7:30PM

SOCO Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of its first exhibition of paintings by Dashiell Manley. The gallery will host a public opening reception with the artist on Wednesday, May 3rd from 5:30 – 7:30 PM in SOCO Annex. 

The exhibition will feature fifteen new, small paintings that will wrap the annex walls. Working for the first time on such an intimate scale, Manley pushes the boundaries of his practice - pulling the viewer in for closer looking and introspection. The paintings are an extension of the Elegy series the artist began developing in 2015. The paintings served to transform a passive meditation practice into an active one resulting in paintings that through a  “…series of meditative marks in oil impasto on linen…resemble zen gardens, impressions of foliage, seashells, dirt rutted roads or slashing cuts depending on perspective and palette.” (Artspace, 2017)

Short rhythmic, repetitive strokes made with thick oil and a palette knife are punctuated by the occasional drift or dot signaling moments of distraction from the meditation. The colorful, highly-textured abstractions can be read as emotional or psychological landscapes. Initially, the paintings were made out of a desire to create a sense of calm in response to external news and chaos, but more recently the artist’s process has shifted inward to respond to internal chaos.  

The lure of the small compositions will be juxtaposed with one large 60 x 84 inch canvas that will break their melody. In we invite the darkness back, the intensity of the artist’s process becomes magnified, an awe inspiring envelopment. 

The sixteen works are titled by a line from the following piece penned by the artist. As the paintings will eventually be separated, each line can stand alone or form a fluid poem when read together:

concerning darkness and light 
in dark passages we grasp for light
a spark or sparkle to get
past, through, around, anywhere but here
it is never dark when we glance back
as we often do once or twice
or ten thousand times in one snap
like memory or hair, though
we are glad to see it go
below in deep water
you know
we know 
we will regret its passing
spangled with different outcomes
another place offered each time
we invite the darkness back

Dashiell Manley (American, b. 1983)

Dashiell Manley (b. 1983) received his BFA from Cal Arts and his MFA from UCLA. Manley’s work has been included in exhibitions at renowned institutions across the US, including in solo exhibitions at Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND), Los Angeles, CA in 2017 and at The Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, Stanford, CA in 2016, as well as in major group presentations such as the 2014 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, and the 2012 Hammer Biennial, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA. He has previously exhibited in Sao Paulo, Sydney, Torino, Vienna, Austin, New York, and Los Angeles. His work is in the public collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA. Jessica Silverman Gallery published a catalog featuring his New York Times paintings in 2015. Manley (b.1983, Fontana, CA) received his BFA from Cal Arts and his MFA from UCLA. He lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.