Dagmar Dahle | Tangle

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Dagmar Dahle, "Untitled," 2022

Courtesy of the artist.

Opening Reception: Saturday, Dec. 3 from 7 to 9 p.m

Tangle assembles fourteen years’ worth of Lethbridge-based artist Dagmar Dahle’s gouache paintings on paper. Part automatic drawing and part daily practice, Tangle refers to the interwoven, chaotic linearity of the artworks but also a reckoning with oneself through meditative introspection. Beginning in 2008 in Paris while on a residency, Dahle began to doodle without intention as a way to ease mental burnout. As she travelled in subsequent years, this meditative practice was easily transportable and would be completed in such locations as: Berlin; Round Lake, Saskatchewan; Blairmore, Alberta; Bamfield, B.C.; Svalbard, Norway; Lethbridge; Toronto; and Mazatlán, Mexico.

Each painting begins with the premise of play, of creation without a pre-ordained result. The paintings are an iterative practice in chance and failure. Oftentimes, the works that seem unsuccessful at the time of their making, end up becoming the most intriguing. After initially sketching and stashing them away, Dahle returns weeks, months, or years later to add structure or colour to the wandering lines. Brought together from varied times and places, the variations from one painting to the next attest to the diverse locations and headspaces of their creator.

The paintings are not deliberately descriptive of a specific thing or landscape but have a way of assuming the context of their creation. Freed of rational control, the paintings map Dahle’s wandering mind, the movements of thought, or even pure sensations. A creative practice freed from expectations and results can be nourishing for one’s inner self. As Dahle demonstrates, it’s also a practice that can be carried out across the world with as little as a pen and a piece of paper.

As an additional experiment in Dahle’s process, she will be completing a large-scale painting on the gallery wall that will take shape over the course of the exhibition. Guests are encouraged to visit the exhibition multiple times to see the painting develop.

On Saturday, January 7 at 1 PM, Dahle will be painting in the gallery and visitors are encouraged to converse with the artist and witness her process up close.

On Saturday, February 4 at 1 PM, join Dahle in the gallery for the unveiling of the completed painting.

Curated by Adam Whitford, Interim Curator

Dagmar Dahle is a visual artist, writer, and educator that has lived and worked in Lethbridge since 1997. She has exhibited widely in Canada and Europe, including at CASA, Lethbridge (2020), The Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge (2006, 2012); Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan (2008); Stride Gallery, Calgary (2009); L’endroit Indiqué, Montreal (2016); Château des Portes, Mainsat, France (2017); and in 2011-12, she was part of the touring group exhibition, Animal, curated by Corinna Ghaznavi (Museum London, Kenderdine Art Gallery, The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Dalhousie Art Gallery).  Dagmar has participated in international residencies, including The Arctic Circle (2015, Svalbard); ZK/U (2017, Berlin); A Post-Super-Future-Asia Writing Workshop (2017, Taipei, Taiwan), The Late Fall Writer’s Retreat (2018, The Banff Centre), and The Canada Council for the Arts Paris Studio (2008, Paris, France). Dagmar’s poetic prose piece, Painting John Brown Painting was published in Ars Medica (University of Toronto Press, 2010).  Her work has been funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the University of Lethbridge. Dagmar studied at the University of Victoria (BFA 1986) and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (MFA 1991) and is a retired faculty member of the Department of Art at the University of Lethbridge.