FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Opening Reception: Thursday, May 4, 2006

Friedrich Petzel Gallery is pleased to announce "Pattern Recognition," an exhibition of new works by Dana Hoey, to coincide with the release of her new book "Profane Waste." The exhibition will be comprised of new photographs of sexualized women, all over the age of 40.

For this body of work, Hoey has combined original and appropriated images and arranged them into kaleidoscopic patterns, juxtaposing the nudes with more simple portraits. Initially inspired by Judith Butler to enact satirical, imitative performances of social patterns, Hoey quickly saw the limitations of such a practice. Noting that there is no way around the "tissue-thin reduction of the female form to sexual viability," Hoey departed from the main themes of her previous work and did away with the picture plane, pictorial narrative, and any semblance of photographic perfection. New participants, these champions of the first wave of feminism, entered the work and not only demolished, but restructured their "pornification." They left messes, carefully ordered into misaligned, dusty, and gluey flat patterns. All dirt and dust was then buried in the ultra-flat picture plane, and laminated over to complete the sealing and erasure of the hand. The result of this grotesque process is a large, vibrant collage that plays with geometric patterns and twisted social norms.

Dana Hoey lives and works in New York. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, most recently in solo shows at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. and Tache-Levy Gallery in Brussels. Her new book, "Profane Waste," created in collaboration with writer Gretchen Rubin, will be released in May.

This will be Dana Hoey's fourth solo exhibition at Friedrich Petzel Gallery. The exhibition will open May 4, with a reception from 6-8 p.m. and will be on view through June 3. Friedrich Petzel Gallery is located at 535 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011. For further information, please contact the gallery at info@petzel.com, or call (212) 680-9467.