Skip to content

Press Release

Opening reception on September 8, 6–8 pm. 

DC Moore Gallery is pleased to present Reworlding, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Theresa Daddezio, on view from September 8 to October 8, 2022. 

Theresa Daddezio imagines hybridizations of human and botanic lifeforms, creating harmonies through the language of abstraction. The artist takes inspiration from the concept of plant mimicry–– in which a plant evolves to resemble another plant, often to attract pollinators or deter predators. In the paintings, organic forms take on synthetic colors and textures, complicating the boundaries between the natural and artificial. Daddezio’s paintings offer an optimistic vision of an interconnected future in spite of ecological destruction and stress, finding potential in our shared ability to adapt.

Motifs emerge in the work: undulating linework can be read as vascular systems, blooming petals appear at once organic and artificial. These hybrid entities vibrate with energy and appear able to breathe, flow, weep, reproduce. Daddezio achieves this sense of vitality by experimenting with the conventions of color theory: earthen tones meet bright synthetic pigments, metallic planes are bordered by deep aquatic blues and greens. 

In this new body of work, organic elements are cross-bred with textures that evoke electronic systems, reflecting the lens through which we view our surrounding environments. Daddezio assembles digital collages from her initial drawings, which through a process of revision and intuition become a framework for the painting. The act of cutting and pasting together elements recalls the work of splicing and rewriting genes, human modifications to the natural world that shortcut the pace of evolution, leading to both feelings of discomfort and possibilities for visual wonder.

In Foxtail (2022), cyan-colored linework oscillates across the canvas, creating a glitch-like feed of visual information that assembles into a totemic form. Space is bisected into flat planes and disrupted by unnaturally vibrant, floral shapes that bloom outward, giving the illusion of depth. While the composition reflects the arrangement of a collage, handmade qualities emerge upon viewing. These painterly details, which the artist calls “ways to encapsulate time,” constitute a record of the painting’s making through the application of thin glazes and the meticulous detail required to draw the energetic lines.

Daddezio is based in Brooklyn, NY. She received an MFA from Hunter College in Visual Art and BFA at SUNY Purchase in Painting and Drawing. Selected exhibitions include: Nathalie Karg Gallery, New York, NY; Hesse Flatow, New York, NY; DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY; Transmitter Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; New York Studio School, New York, NY; the University of Hawai’i, Manoa; and Studio Kura, Itoshima, Japan. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Art Maze, Hyperallergic, The Queens Ledger, Bushwick Daily, and The L Magazine. She participated in the Sharpe Walentas Studio Program (2021 - 22) in Brooklyn and in the Wassaic Residency Project in Upstate New York (2018).

This exhibition is accompanied by the catalogue featuring an interview, Becoming & Unbecoming, with the artist and Elizaveta Shneyderman. 

For press inquiries, please contact Caroline Magavern.

Video

Theresa Daddezio in conversation with Jen Hitchings and Erika Ranee

September 24, 2022

Back To Top