Near and Distant Views, Mia Galleries, Miami International Airport, between Concourse D and E, November 22, 2018 – January 31, 2018
Condon’s exhibition at Mia Galleries features a selection of 5 paintings, each steeped in travel and place.
Accompanying the show will be a brochure featuring an essay by Franklin Einspruch.
For a dive into Condon’s thought process, here she is, in her own words:
“Scrolls are meant to be unfolded, so Wallpaper Dragonis made exactly that way. I poured half of it in FL and half in NM. The pours themselves create liquidity, a movement in which islands of activity or imagery are placed: the gods and goddesses from Maitland, the Kleenex box pattern, the petroglyphs that become wallpaper patterns or Chinese seals. This scroll, not on rice paper but a heavy watercolor paper, became a physical body that traveled as it developed. I rolled it one side to the other, so each movement forward was charting a new territory–literally, I could not see the whole, and had to trust the composition would unfold harmoniously in real time unseen. It tore and had to be repaired but I still couldn’t see it in its entirety. It was designed to be shown front and back, so the back has a wallpaper pattern repeat complete with symbols where to join the patterns. I became entranced with ways space is marked as symbols in wallpaper and empty space in scrolls. As is usual on a residency, I start with more detail and end up with less information-this occurs from left to right on the scroll, though it was poured right to left. In part the lesser detail on the right end has to do with the amount of salt I poured into the Chinese ink…creating a serious reticulation that became its own image.
These paintings are perfect to show in the airport because they are informed by travel, and made in different but related times and places:
Beijing, 2009 (Gaoxing, Beijing)
Shanghai, 2014
New Mexico, 2018