"Within Four Miles": The World of Josh Dorman
August 22, 2008 – January 11, 2009

CAFAM is proud to present the work of Brooklyn-based artist Josh Dorman in his solo museum exhibition debut, “Within Four Miles.” Called a “cartographic zealot” by ArtForum and “pure refreshment” by the L.A. Times, Dorman works with antiquated 19th and 20th century maps to create electrifying and gorgeously collaged dreamscapes where structure and imagination collide. “Within Four Miles” - a title inspired by Lewis and Clark’s ability to predict accuracy in uncharted land - represents a decade of the artist’s work and showcases his exploration of the polymorphous borders of the human mind in relation to time and place, symbol and meaning.

Influenced by Paul Klee and compared to Brueghel, Dorman uses pre-1940 maps and surveys as a framework for his mixed-medium collages. Combining ink, acrylics, and elements from prephotographic textbooks and engravings, Dorman creates allegorical and lush fantasyscapes that belie the absolute empiricism of topography by reminding us that the natural world is in perilous flux and that the mind, in its totality, possesses a lyrical logic all its own. Visceral and thought provoking, Dorman’s paintings engage aspects of scale and perception in their exploration of motifs ranging from the power and suggestiveness of language, to evolution, to the destruction of the natural world.

Included in this exhibition are signature works such as “Exodus,” “Tower of Babel,” and “A Cautionary Tale” as well as pieces done in conjunction with Memory Bridge, an Alzheimer’s awareness foundation. These intimate and revelatory pieces compliment Dorman’s larger work and speak to the exhibition’s theme: in a twenty-first century world where physical borders and identities remain fiercely, even fatally, guarded, there is a deeper connectivity that unites all things and bestows an equal worth.

As our collective attention span grows shorter, as the world grows smaller, and as our polar ice caps melt rapidly into the sea, “Within Four Miles” provides a political and poetic context for examining this new world order.

This exhibit and public programs are sponsored by the Annenberg Foundation, the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, and the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles, with support from Memory Bridge: The Foundation for Alzheimer's and Cultural Memory.

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