Exhibition Statement

Piecing It Together presents a selection of abstract paintings and drawings by Danielle Kimzey, Mary Laube, and Christopher Reno. These three artists explore the private world of the ‘home’ and seek to demystify, through their abstract works, this insular, domestic space. The artists’ subjects reveal both the contents of the ‘house’ (mundane objects encountered everyday) and associations of ‘home’ (deeply ingrained memories and constructed ideals). These artists draw from their experiences of parenthood and the home, and in doing so, bring to the forefront a view that is uniquely private, yet shared.

Kimzey, Laube, and Reno work within modernist painting traditions, yet blur boundaries between the art world and the domestic sphere. Modernist abstraction in America was largely dominated by notions of the singular (male) genius and praised for its unbridled expression of freedom and lofty notions of artistic autonomy. The artists of Piecing It Together challenge this tradition of abstraction by exploring domesticity, a subject that is considered banal or sentimental. Kimzey reconfigures puzzles and employs the logic of Legos to explore formal concerns of color, composition, form, and gesture. Laube modifies and flattens perspective in depictions of her surroundings to complicate the intersection of constructed and idealized spaces. Textiles and fibers, foundational to Reno’s practice, reflect his experimental manipulation of materials most often associated with craft or the home.

The artists do not strive to monumentalize their experiences, but rather, make them accessible through the context of the practice of abstraction. The small scale of the paintings and drawings presented in this exhibition mimic the intimacy of the subject matter addressed by the artists. In piecing together their memories, from the idealized to the monotonous, and constructed imagery of the home, Kimzey, Laube, and Reno evocatively problematize the historical marginalization of the domestic to the periphery of art.

Danielle Kimzey is based in Dallas and studied Painting and Drawing at the University of Iowa and Southern Methodist University. Her work has been exhibited nationally in Dallas, Memphis, and Irvine, and internationally in Berlin.

Mary Laube is based in Cleveland and studied Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture at the University of Iowa and Illinois State University. Her work has been exhibited nationally in Dallas, New York, and Philadelphia, and internationally in Gimpo, South Korea.

Christopher Reno is based in Galesburg, IL and studied Painting, Drawing, and Printmaking at the University of Iowa, Knox College, and the New York Studio School. His work has been exhibited nationally in New York, Austin, and St. Louis.

Curated by Georgia Erger, Curatorial Fellow for the Hawn Gallery.