Prolepsis is the gallery's inaugural exhibition of Tim Doud’s work. The show presents only three works with each selected from ongoing large-scale projects. In addition to stylistic traits, the three pieces are tied together by a preoccupation with fabric and the semiotic nature of fabric patterns. Hundreds of fabric patterns are referenced throughout the paintings exhibited. One might assume the fabric patterns have been chosen at random or simply for their graphic features. However, the artist's previous work was rooted in portraiture and each of his subjects dressed for the occasion. Through the intense demand of painting the details of these costumes, Doud became inspired by the symbolism of the clothing. Each garment and its fabric parts point to its ethnographic source and a trail of meanings. In each of the three pieces in the show fabric patterns are arranged in familiar visual systems, one in a taxonomic gridding of 100 small paintings, another riffing on cubist design strategies, and the third, a massive interlacing of multiple textiles. Doud’s arranging and weaving together of fabric patterns as painting subject becomes representative of a population, a "we the people." The paintings are loud and boisterous, overflowing with the visual drama of conflicting abstract imagery. Relying on art’s inherent ambition for and against balance, Doud demonstrates a collective struggle to reach harmony. Each painting professes the potential for a positive outcome. Each is the equivalent of a social vestment. No doubt you will recognize a fabric you have worn.
Tim Doud (American, b. 1961) has an MFA in Painting and Drawing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine. Doud’s work has been exhibited at Curator's Office, Washington, DC, Galerie Brusberg, Berlin, Germany, Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland, MC Magma, Milan, Italy, Priska Juschka Fine Art, New York, NY, RAYGUN, Toowoomba, South Queensland, Australia, and Mono Practice, Baltimore, MD. His work has been exhibited at PS1 (MOMA), the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Artists Space New York, the Frye Art Gallery, Seattle, WA, the Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA, the Kemper Contemporary Art Museum, Kansas City, MO, the Smithsonian Institution National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC, and the New Bedford Museum of Art, New Bedford, MA. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (Arts Midwest), the Pollock Krasner Art Foundation, the DC Commission for the Arts and Humanities, and has participated in residencies at the Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada, the Sharpe/ Walentas Studio Program, New York, NY, and the Golden Foundation, New Berlin, NY. Doud is a Professor in the Department of Art at American University, Washington DC.