DFN Gallery is pleased to present New Paintings, our second solo exhibition of work by John Hardy.  In his most recent series of paintings, Hardy expands his interpretation of the contemporary world, bringing into play ideas of the active and the interactive, conspicuous consumerism and its effect on identity, and social acculturation.  With vibrant imagery and a palette taken directly from life, the paintings juxtapose urban architecture, the movements and inhabitants of city streets, and the marketing images that have become the iconography of our time, creating heated moments that are, at times, unsettling, sardonic, or unmistakably sexual.

Charged by this physical energy, his paintings bring into focus the interplay between our daily experience and the ever-changing hyper-reality in which we live.  Space and perspective speak to the paradoxical elements within Hardy's works, exploring the dynamics present between engagement and disengagement, patriotism and assimilation, reality and fantasy, interior and exterior.  This ambiguity is fundamental to the energy of the work.  Focusing on the relationship between modern life and technology, works such as I Need to See You and Connect -- Disconnect speak to a sense of detachment the artist observes in the mobile phones and I-pod users increasingly encountered on public streets.  Infanta Maria and Nicole alludes to the ever-present political undercurrent in our social landscape, images of warplanes and flags invoking feelings of turmoil and apprehension when brought to the forefront of the visual plane.  Hardy's saturated, symbol-laden images are rendered in a deliberately complex space, catching his subjects in moments of interplay that draw the viewer into the work, denying them the comfort of the the very detachment he speaks to.

John Hardy currently lives and works in New York.  His paintings have been exhibited widely for over 30 years and can be found in private and public collections including the Brooklyn Museum, the High Museum, the National Museum of American Art, and the New York Historical Society.  Hardy has received grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.  In addition to this exhibition at DFN Gallery, his work will be seen in the joint installation Peacetower 2006 at the Whitney Biennial 2006: Day for Night, on view March 2 - May 28, 2006 at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

A catalogue, John Hardy, Paintings 2001-2005, with essays by Paul Brach and Gail Levin, accompanies this exhibition.