Cayón is pleased to present, in one of its Madrid spaces, the first exhibition in Spain by North American artists Anoka Faruqee and David Driscoll, who have been collaborating since 2012.
The current co-authored work develops aspects of their respective previous individual works, such as Faruqee's commitment to modular geometry and Driscoll's experimentation with materiality. In the joint work, one sees varied influences; from modern artists such as Josef Albers, Agnes Martin, and Bridget Riley to the Islamic architecture of the Alhambra in Granada and North American Romantic landscape painting.
Anoka Faruqee & David Driscoll, 2018P-25 (Circle), 2018. Acrylic on linen on panel, 114,30 x 114,3 cm. AK015
Using compositional systems, binary logic, and geometric shapes in the form of concentric rings, these paintings create illusory experiences in the form of “moirés” that are self-generated by the superimposition of patterns.
Anoka Faruqee & David Driscoll, 2019P-13(Circle), 2019. Acrílico sobre lino sobre tablero, 114 x 114 cm. AK007
The excess flow of color around the edges, in the form of viscous paint, and various ruptures or flaws in the resulting image, are by-products of a process – carried out with special instruments – that do not distort, in their imperfection, the final result, but rather enhance and accentuate. These glitches read simultaneously as material accident, electromagnetic corruption, and traces of gesture.
The most recent paintings introduce, in the artists' words, a "secondary moiré", a subtle vibratory underpainting embedded within their paintings, where each concentric circular line become sinuous. The result is another interruption of experience that mysteriously reveals that what we perceive as pure light and form is an aggregate of data in which color and drawing are confused in a way that dilutes the centuries-old Renaissance confrontation between color and design (colore y el disegno).
Inspired by the modularity of digital images, these paintings can only be fully understood in person at different distances and viewing angles, as their viewing through the printed or digital medium generates, in turn, new moiré effects that do not occur in the paintings themselves. Faruqee and Driscoll connect, in this way, modularity and movement to the wonder and anxiety that much of contemporary life provokes: the hint of animation and sentience inside of technology.
Anoka Faruqee & David Driscoll in their studio © Danielle DeJesus
Anoka Faruqee (1972, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA) and David Driscoll (1964, Steubenville, Ohio, USA) are painters who began collaborating in 2012. Faruqee received his graduate degree from Tyler School of Art in 1997 and his BFA in painting from Yale University in 1994. Driscoll graduated from The Ohio State University in 1987. Prior to working together, Faruqee was selected for a fellowship at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, New York (1998) and the Pollock Krasner Foundation, Artadia (2002). Her paintings were exhibited at the PS1 Museum, New York (2002), the Albright Knox Gallery, Buffalo (2005) or the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, among others.
Driscoll also took part in exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto (2002), the Sonnenschein and Albright Galleries Gallery Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, Illinois (2003) and the Depaul University Museum, Chicago (2004).
Their 2005 joint exhibition at the Zolla/Lieberman Gallery in Chicago was reviewed in Art in America and the Chicago Sun Times. Since then, Faruqee and Driscoll have exhibited their work collaboratively at institutions including The Painting Center, New York (2015); Shirley Fiterman Art Center, New York (2015); Schneider Art Museum, Ashland (2015); Secession, Vienna (2017); Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York (2017); Hall Art Foundation, Vermont, USA, and Derneberg, Germany (2017); The Suburban, Milwaukee (2019); Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts (2019); ARTspace, New York (2021) or the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York (2022).
At Artforum (2020) Katherine McKittrick included their work in the “top ten” list, adding how both artists have delved into their research about color theory. “In their paintings, lines and waves move together, tied together with harmonizing and repeating colors, changing as we reorient ourselves in relation to the image. Faruqee and Driscoll generate an optical binding,” he says. Their work has also earned mentions in the New York Times and Hyperallergic, both in 2019.
They live and work in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, where Faruqee is co-director of graduate studies at the Yale School of Art’s Department of Painting and Printmaking.
For more information, see the press release HERE