John Sparagana Between the Eyes
March 18 - April 30, 2011
Main Gallery
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John Sparagana
Untitled BTE #7, WW2 Soldiers Pacific Landing/Frank Stella, ‘Tomlinson Court Park,’ 1959, Andy Warhol, ‘Flowers,’ 1964, Frank Stella, ‘Die Fahne Hoch,’ 1959
2010
sliced & mixed inkjet prints and oil pastel on paper
62 x 46 inches
John Sparagana
Untitled BTE #9: Teddy Kennedy Funeral/Andy Warhol ‘Flowers,’ 1964
2010-2011
sliced & mixed inkjet prints & oil pastel on paper
21 x 31 3/4 inches
John Sparagana
Untitled BTE #6, Afghanistan Citizens, American Soldier/Andy Warhol ‘Flowers,’ 1964
2010
sliced & mixed inkjet prints and oil pastel on paper
59 3/4 x 44 1/4 inches
Installation view
John Sparagana
Untitled BTE #1: South Korean Demonstration Police Crackdown/Ellsworth Kelly, ‘Falcon Study,’ 1959
2010
sliced & mixed inkjet prints and oil pastel on paper
59 3/4 x 44 inches
John Sparagana
Untitled BTE #2: Pakistani Lawyers Protest/Ellsworth Kelly, ‘Two Panels, Black and White,’ 1955-58
2010
sliced & mixed inkjet prints and oil pastel on paper
63 x 46 3/4 inches
Installation view
John Sparagana
Untitled BTE #5: Post Earthquake Haiti/Frank Stella, ’Die Fahne Hoch,’ 1959, Hélio Oiticica,Metesquema,’ 1958
2010
sliced & mixed inkjet prints and oil pastel on paper
58 1/4 x 88 inches
Installation view
John Sparagana
Untitled BTE #3: Post Earthquake Haiti/Frank Stella, ‘Arundel Castle,’ 1959, Helio Oiticia, ‘Metesquema,’ 1958
2010
sliced & mixed inkjet prints and oil pastel on paper
58 1/4 x 43 3/4 inches
John Sparagana
Untitled BTE #8: Afghanistan Citizens, American Soldier, Military Transport Vehicle/Helio Oiticica,‘Metesquema,’ 1957 (three times)2010
sliced & mixed inkjet prints and oil pastel on paper
58 1/4 x 87 3/4 inches
John Sparagana
Untitled BTE #4: Haitian Mother And Children/Hélio Oiticica, ‘Metesquema,’ 1957
2010
sliced & mixed inkjet prints and oil pastel on paper
59 7/8 x 43 7/8 inches
John Sparagana
Der Spiegel 21-10-102010
fatigued, sliced, and mixed magazine pages on paper
48 x 36 inches
John Sparagana
DS 14-8-092010
fatigued, sliced, & mixed magazine pages on paper
21 x 16 inches
John Sparagana
Untitled2009
fatigued and sliced magazine pages on paper
20 x 16 inches
Exhibition billboard, with image of
Untitled BTE #9: Teddy Kennedy Funeral/Andy Warhol ‘Flowers,’ 1964
Press Release
In his first solo show at Corbett vs. Dempsey, John Sparagana presents a startling new body of work as hard-hitting as it is subtle, rich, and elegant. Between the Eyes extends Sparagana’s longstanding practice of intervening in media images. The eight new pieces presented are large-scale – the size of hefty paintings – and all use a complex system of cutting, interdigitating, and interrupting magazine page images, opening up a profoundly revealing, deeply poetic new vision. Each piece grapples with the informational content of a news image, slicing and dicing and further pummeling it; the image is then overlayed with another one drawn from the canon of pop and post-minimal abstraction. Scenes from Haiti and Afghanistan jostle with shapes and forms from Helio Oiticica, Frank Stella, Ellsworth Kelly, and Andy Warhol. Sparagana is a well-known figure in Chicago and beyond.
A book on his work, Sleeping Beauty , with an extensive essay by art historian Mieke Bal, was published by University of Chicago Press in 2008.