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Caravaggio’s Cat and Other Things Unseen

February 23, 2006- April 8, 2006

Marc Dennis

Ricco/Maresca

529 W 20th St

Ricco Maresca Gallery is pleased to present Caravaggio’s Cat and Other Things Unseen, a solo show of work by New York-based artist Marc Dennis. Dennis’ lavish realism recalls 17th century historical painting, yet his delightfully bizarre portraits and still lives are infused with contemporary symbolism and attitude. Boldly stylized subjects - a frog breaking through the water in DeKooning’s Backyard, a man with a large Afro haircut in Nose Hair - are painted provocatively, combining iconic images of the now with historic modes of representation. Like his Old- Master predecessors - Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Goya - Marc Dennis’ subjects evoke metaphoric gravitas through his skillful rendering.

With a light-handed use of narrative, combined with a lucid directness, Marc Dennis’ images portray the world with a subtle sense of disquiet and wonder. Set against minimal backgrounds and painted in rich chiaroscuro, the subjects of his portraits retain a sense of individuality despite their epic settings. In a previous exhibition catalog, Andrea Inselmann, Curator of Painting at the Johnson Museum at Cornell University, wrote, “In his decidedly post-modern paintings, Dennis seduces the viewer to look closely by using familiar and inviting genres like still-life and portraiture to ensnare the viewer who subsequently could not resist the rich layers of emerging meaning.

A full-color catalog, with an essay by Lilly Wei, will be available.

Marc Dennis’ work has been exhibited at numerous venues including the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE; the Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston MA; the Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, TX; the Cleveland Museum of Art, OH; and the San Jose Museum of Art, CA. Recently, Dennis was named a finalist for the 2006 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, offered by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C. Reviews of his work have appeared in ARTnews, Art Papers, and the New York Times, among many. Dennis divides his time between Brooklyn and Elmira, NY where he teaches full time at Elmira College.

Books and DVDs related to artists in this show

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