Drew Dominick is a Los Angeles-based artist who has exhibited nationwide. Dominick’s sculpture and installation art delivers a new vision of the American west, bridging historic images and traditions with contemporary media and forms. In his work, Dominick combines the traditional realism and romanticism of western American art with the conceptual edge of contemporary art. After Remington at the FAC centers upon Dominick’s response to historic artist Frederic Remington’s classic depictions of western subjects. He writes:
“In my own sculptural investigation I decided to copy Remington’s The Rattlesnake, The Buffalo Horse and The Buffalo Signalbut use a variation of materials: sheet-rock, wire, leather, chewing tobacco, feathers, snake skins and wood. I would preserve the action and realism and his brilliant use of space and gravity the best I could, but the material choice would be different from the originals. I wanted to make the 150-year-old work more alive with contemporary urban/industrial materials.”
Dominick’s After Remington also includes the artist’s newest sculptures, which are based upon inauthentic, commercially available Remington bronzes. “My idea was to make molds of fake Remingtons (purchased for about 500 -1000 dollars online). I cast a mixture of silicone rubber and black and brown pigment into the molds. I tried to match the patina in the Remington bronzes the best I could. I started with The Bronco Buster and The Mountain Man. The final choice of rubber as a material satisfied my interest in the issue of art’s authenticity, specifically with Remington’s sculptures, and the process of casting and mold making. Using rubber also gives the work a conceptual edge; the heroic nature of the bronze Bronco Buster disappears because the piece no longer supports itself. The work is a fallen hero, his body and horse limp, resting on the ground. This contrasts beautifully with the monumental and imposing presence of an original Remington bronze.”
After Remington will include mixed media and rubber sculptures as well as Dominick’s installation of small cast sculptures of hunting treasures displayed as curiosities in department store cases. All of the sculptures will be focused around Frederic Remington’s original bronze The Bronco Buster, which Dominick grew up with in the family home. The exhibition is co-curated by FAC Museum Director Blake Milteer and Denver Art Museum Curator Emeritus Dianne Vanderlip and will be accompanied by an exhibition catalogue with an essay by Denver Art Museum Director Emeritus and Remington scholar Lewis Sharp.