Dimensions Variable is pleased to be invited to participate in the second edition of NADA Foreland, a collaborative exhibition to take place July 21–23, 2023 at Foreland’s 85,000 square foot arts complex during Upstate Art Weekend. We’ll be presenting the work of Vaughn Davis Jr., Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova, Frances Trombly, Marcos Valella.
The artists presented by Dimensions Variable (DV) in the NADA Foreland exhibition are using painting as a reference for something else. Through an intense process, Vaughn Davis Jr’s practice is contradicting traditional notions of painting. His work literally is taking painting apart as he moves toward sculpture and performance. Similarly, Frances Trombly’s practice weaves dyed fiber as color fields of painting allowing the inconsistencies of her process to remain. The emphasis on fabric is made by draping the woven canvases off the wooden structures signaling a departure from paint on canvas and liberating the canvas. Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova has been exploring domestic objects for decades. He uses different references to fabric as human remnants left behind creating a poignant composition formally referencing painting. Marcos Valella’s work constantly examines what painting is and what it can be. He references art history as he uses the process of painting to push his work into a procedural and material corner where there is no escape. All the artists are tackling serious topics relating to self-examination, belonging, labor, immigration, and economics, but in this specific curatorial project, we’re focusing on their interest in dismantling painting and its formality.
Available Works
About the Artists
Vaughn Davis Jr.
Vaughn Davis, Jr. was born in 1995 in St. Louis, MO, and lives and works there. He received his BFA in Sculpture from Webster University in St. Louis (2018). Davis, Jr. has mounted solo or two-person exhibitions at Romer Young Gallery in San Francisco, CA (2021); Dragon Crab Turtle in St. Louis, MO (2021); and Monaco Gallery in St. Louis, MO (2021). He has also presented his work in group exhibitions at Philip Slein Gallery, St. Louis, MO; Malin Gallery, New York City, NY; and The Luminary St. Louis, MO. He was also invited to participate in the Curated Storefront in Akron, OH, as part of Front International: Cleveland Triennial For Contemporary Art and was to represent his home state of Missouri in Delta Voices: Artists of the Mid South Triennial.
Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova
Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova (b. 1973 Havana, Cuba) is an Artist, Curator, Co-founder and Co-director of Dimensions Variable (DV) and Fulano Inc. His work has been exhibited widely at Sculpture Center, Socrates Sculpture Park, Abrons Arts Center and White Box in New York; Museo de Bellas Artes and Factoria Habana in Havana, Cuba; ZONA MACO Arte Contemporaneo in Mexico City, Mexico; Capri Palace and Villa Lena in Italy; Prosjektrom Normanns in Stavanger, Norway; PAMM, Frost Museum, The Bass, MOCA, DV and Locust Projects in Miami. His work is in many public and private collections around the world and institutions like PAMM, Frost Museum, Cintas Foundation, and The Bass. He has been written about in the New York Times, The Miami Herald, Art Nexus, Arte al Dia, Artforum, Artsy, Sculpture Magazine, Hyperallergic, The Miami Rail, and Miami Magazine. Since founding DV in 2009, he has organized and curated many projects by local and international emerging artists.
Frances Trombly
Frances Trombly (b. 1976 Miami, FL, USA) is based in Miami, FL, United States. She received a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD. She has exhibited nationally and internationally. Select exhibitions include #Fail, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA; Illusions are Real, Manif d’art, Québec City Biennale, Quebec City, Canada; Wabi Sabi, Sun Valley Museum of Art, Ketcham, Idaho; Americana: Formalizing Craft at the Perez Art Museum Miami and united states at the The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT. Her work has been featured in various publications including The New York Times, Art Papers, Sculpture Magazine, Surface Design Journal, and The Los Angeles Times. Trombly’s work is in the permanent collection of the Perez Art Museum, Miami and NSU Art Museum, Ft. Lauderdale, among others. Trombly co-directs Dimensions Variable, an exhibition space in Miami, Florida. The artist is represented by Emerson Dorsch, Miami, FL and Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica, CA.
Marcos Valella
Marcos Valella received a Master of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing from The University of Iowa. He is the recipient of the Here and There Grant – Berlin, Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach; a resident at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Miami, SOMA Artist in Residence, Mexico City; a participant in Dialogues in Cuban Art artist exchange program, Havana, and a resident in Andrea Zittel A-Z West. His exhibitions include Interlay, Augustana Teaching Museum of Art, Rock Island, IL; While watching T.V., Windows @ Walgreens, Miami Beach; framekini, Bikini Wax, Mexico City; Grid’s World, Locust Projects, Miami; Yesterday Clouds, Underdonk, New York, NY; Fish Scales, Michael Jon & Alan Gallery, Miami; Practices Remain, Regina Rex, New York; Marcos Valella, Nina Johnson Gallery, Miami; Series 5, Dimensions Variable, Miami; New Work Miami, Perez Art Museum Miami; Present, Centro Cultural Español, Miami; and Painting’s Edge, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA. Collections include Pérez Art Museum Miami, Fort Lauderdale Art Museum, Augustana Teaching Museum of Art, Girls’ Club Foundation, University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art, Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum, MDC Museum of Art and Design Miami. He has been included in various publications such as Artforum, The New Yorker, The Miami New Times, The Miami Herald, The Miami Rail, Hyperallergic, and Time Out New York.