Richard Dupont
Self Medication
November 19 - December 30, 2022
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 19th, 5-8pm
Lowell Ryan Projects is pleased to present Self Medication a solo exhibition by New York-based artist Richard Dupont. Consisting of works from the artist’s “Heads” series as well as works on paper from his “Biometry” series, this is Dupont’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles and with the gallery. In the early 2000s Dupont participated in a study where his body was digitally scanned at a military base. He has utilized that information as the foundation for his practice in the years since, producing sculpture, drawing, digital animation, painting, printmaking, and photography. While inescapably self-portraits, Dupont’s practice transcends a personal narrative into an exploration of the social implications of 21st Century digital technologies and their physiological and psychological effects.
Dupont’s “Heads” sculptures are created from a singular blown-up cast of his head. An ongoing series that began in 2010, each cast is filled with various objects—some with the detritus of his studio practice, other works filled with objects that the artist encounters in his life or that simply catch his attention—sealed in place with a UV stable polyurethane resin, ensuring the preservation of their contents. In Placebo Head, 2021 a figurine, a spring clamp, a packet of ginseng, a toy strawberry, and as if winking to the viewer, a copy of The Meaning of History by Erich Kahler are visible amongst other items in a red color scheme. These objects exist in a paradoxical space between methodical choice and random encounter. On one level they function aesthetically in their coloration, but their size and ability to take up space in the cast of the head is also a consideration. Beyond that their seeming randomness reminds the viewer of the human need to understand the world around them, and to create meaning. A questioning of the concept of free will also exists. Can we operate according to our own thoughts, or are we held captive by external forces beyond our ability to control? Are we able to take the red pill, or is the red pill another illusion in the code of the Matrix?
At just over two feet in height, physical perception is challenged by both scale and the refraction of light. As the artist ages, the head remains the same shape while its contents transform. A cognitive dissonance emerges in the works. They become not so much an accurate reflection of the artist himself, but the idea of the artist as a proxy, a visual depiction of a human. The works reflect the dissociation between the idea of one’s self in one’s mind and the physical implications of aging. In the case of Dupont’s “Heads,” the mind continues moving, absorbing information, casting it away, reacting to its surroundings, dreaming, creating, learning—serving as a conduit of the world and a reaction to it—all while the idea of a Richard Dupont remains the same. There is an elegant simplicity to the works in their purity of form, but also an uncanny quality in their realism.
Installation view: Richard Dupont, Self Medication
A pioneer in the field of digital art, Richard Dupont (b. New York, NY, 1968) received a BA from the Departments of Visual Art and Archeology at Princeton University. Dupont’s works have been exhibited at numerous museums including The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, CA (2016); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (2015); The Underground Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2014); The Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY (2014); The Queens Museum, Queens, NY (2013); The Middlebury College Museum of Art, Middlebury, VT (2011); and The Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, NY (2008). He has presented major installations at Lever House, New York, NY (2008) and The Flag Art Foundation, New York, NY (2010). Dupont’s works are included in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH; The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; The Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; The Perez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL; The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; and The New York Public Library Print Collection, New York, NY; among many other public and private collections. In 2014, Dupont was awarded the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) Visionary Award. His works have been reviewed and discussed in numerous publications including The New York Times, Artnet News, Art in America, Modern Painters, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Beast, The Art Newspaper, ARTnews, The New Yorker, and ArtForum.
In conjunction with the newly acquired monumental bronze sculpture, Badende, 2019 by The Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) and its upcoming exhibition in 2023, a comprehensive monograph, produced by The Perez Art Museum and DelMonico Books / DAP will be released that presents a survey of Dupont’s artistic practice from 2000-2022.