Red Roil

In a process that combines painting, drawing, and collaged cut-outs, Josh Dorman serves as the master architect, creating in Red Roil a beguiling realm of fantasy, dreams, and imaginings. The scene features a tangle of elevated roadways that appear to float in the air, yet they support a parade of pachyderms that walk and stand among humans and other caged and uncaged animals. Antique mechanized contraptions and centuries-old monuments loom over the landscape, and a miniature art academy holds a life drawing session. Monumental arches and mysterious, antiquated structures populate the ethereal scene, which is bathed in brilliant shades of red and pink, like some otherworldly atmosphere. Here, the natural and industrial worlds find common ground. The foundation layer on the entire panel is a roll of antique player piano music. With its faded tones and perforations, the paper adds an underlying structure and literal rhythms to the surface. For Dorman, this painting “presents a roiling, chaotic, yet organized world. It can be beautiful or threatening. It reminds us of so many things, present and lost, but its reality and its logic are internal.”