Corbett vs. Dempsey

works by John Sparagana

John Sparagana's training as a painter imbues his work with a sensitivity to materials that it has never lost. He has been working with manipulated print media for the last decade, establishing a startlingly original oeuvre. In a progression of earlier series, Sparagana used magazine pages - usually from fashion magazines - which he manually fatigued, sometimes in toto, sometimes in parts. The resulting images interrupt and hijack meaning from the original pop culture context, intervening in their ostensible commercial mechanism in subtle, poetic ways. Some of these works appear in Sleeping Beauty, a book he and writer Mieke Bal created collaboratively (University of Chicago Press, 2008). In the intervening two years since that publication, Sparagana has systematically explored several new processes, cutting and interdigitating magazine pages in a thoroughly fresh and unexpected manner. In 2009, he completed a large group of these labor intensive pieces utilizing pages from the German periodical Der Spiegel in which he shifted the investigation from intervention in image to abstraction of text (turning text into field) and negotiation of text/image relationships. Most recently, Sparagana has continued working with news media, interposing abstract shapes (often in reflective or solid colors) drawn from the canon of modernist, pop, and post-conceptual art (Kelly, Warhol, Oiticica, Smithson).


Education

Stanford University, Stanford, CA, MFA

Teaching

Rice University, Houston, TX, Full Professor

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2009       The Crisis Professionals, CTRL, Houston, TX
2008       Jane South John Sparagana, CTRL Gallery, Houston, TX
2007       Afternoon Hallucinogenic, Priska C. Juschka Fine Art, New York, NY
2006       What the Child Saw, What the Lover Saw, What the Killer Saw, moniquemeloche, Chicago, IL
2005       People Everywhere are Stoned, Mixture Contemporary Art, Houston, TX
2004       People Everywhere are Tired, Modern Culture, New York, NY
               Sleeping Beauty, Mixture Contemporary Art, Houston, TX
2002       I Wait For You Every Night, Rice University Media Center, Houston, TX
               Swoon, wall installation, James Gallery, Houston, TX
2001       Sublime, James Gallery, Houston, TX

Selected Group Exhibitions

2009      Olio, Tony Wight Gallery, Chicago, IL
              NEXT Art Fair, Chicago, CTRL, Houston, TX
              Signs of the Apocalypse / Rapture, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL
2008      NEXT Art Fair, Chicago, CTRL, Houston, TX
2007      Antennae, Houston Center For Photography, Houston, TX
              The Exquisite Snake, Bloch Museum of Art, Evanston, IL
              Bold Saboteurs, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL
              Aqua Art Miami, CTRL, Houston, TX
2006      Making/Breaking, two-person exhibition with Anni Holm at the Moser Performing Arts Center at University of
              St. Francis, Joliet, IL, curated by Matt Wilson and Paul Erschen
              Full Frontal, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL
              GEEP, Oresman Gallery, Smith College, Northampton, MA, curated by Atopia Projects
              In This House That I Call Home, Western Project, Los Angeles, CA
              In Sight: Recent Additions To The Permanent Collection, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL
2005      Kiss Me Long and Hard, Priska C. Juschka Fine Art, New York, NY
              Post-Photography, Changing Role-Move Over Gallery, Naples, Italy
              Girls of Summer, moniquemeloche, Chicago, IL
              Pages, I Space, Chicago, IL, curated by Buzz Spector
              No Monument, The Guest Room Project, Chicago, IL
              Dating Data, Josee Bienvenu Gallery, New York, NY
2004      GEEP, Cell 77, Edinburgh, Scotland
              John Sparagana & Laura Mosquera, Bright Group showroom, Chicago, IL, curated by Monique Meloche
              NADA Art Fair, Miami, Mixture Contemporary, Houston, TX
              Editor's Choice: John Sparagana and Laura Mosquera, moniquemeloche, Chicago, IL
              State of Affairs, Savage Art Resources, Portland, OR, curated by Stuart Horodner
              Sketchbook: Collaboraction, Chopin Theatre, Chicago, IL
              You're No Photographer, Bad Dog Gallery, DeKalb, IL, curated by Geoffrey Smith
2003      re: LAX, DCKT Gallery, New York, NY
              NADA Art Fair, Miami, Mixture Contemporary, Houston, TX
              Collectible, Northern Illinois University Gallery, Chicago, IL
2002      Pasted On, Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago, IL
              Re-Action, Jan Weiner Gallery, Kansas City, MO
              John Sparagana, Ann Strautberg, Dornith Doherty: FotoFest 2002, James Gallery, Houston, TX
2001      Beefcake/Cheesecake: Sex, Flesh, Money, and Dreams, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art,
              Santa Ana, CA
              Operating Systems, Susan Cummins Gallery, Mill Valley, CA
              Collage 2001, Etherington Gallery, Vineyard Haven, MA
2000      Eros, Municipal Exhibition Hall, LaRoque Thimbault, France
              Shake the Coat, Northpark University Gallery, Chicago, IL
              Teenie Weenie, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX
1999      It Looks Easy: A Cross Section of Recent Painting in Chicago, Gallery 400, University of Illinois at Chicago,
              Chicago, IL
              Is This a Joke or What? Feminism, Humour and Contemporary Art in Texas, O'Kane Gallery, University of
              Houston-Downtown, Houston, TX

Grants, Fellowships, Residencies, and Awards

2003       Ucross Foundation, Clearmont, WY, Residency Fellowship
2001       Cultural Arts Council of Houston, Houston, Texas, Individual Artist's Grant
1996       Cultural Arts Council of Houston, Houston, Texas, Individual Artist's Grant
1995-6    Roswell Museum & Art Center, Roswell NM, Artist-in-Residence Program
1992        Cultural Arts Council of Houston, Houston, Texas, Individual Artist's Grant
1988-9    Mid-America Arts Alliance/National Endowment for the Arts
1987-8     Bemis Project/Alternative Worksite, Omaha, Nebraska, Residency Fellowship
1987        Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris, France, Residency Fellowship
1985-7    Stanford University Department of Art, Stanford, California, Full Fellowship